KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — On the hottest day this year in Kansas City, dehydration was starting to become a concern. Players were exhausted. Royals manager Ned Yost was starting to feel sorry for Tony Randazzo behind the plate, and he wasn’t even the umpire whose face had been bloodied in the game.
Billy Butler’s tiebreaking home run in the eighth was an especially welcome sight, leading the Royals to a 5-4 victory and three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays.
“It was really, really hot out there,” said Butler, who greeted reliever Burke Badenhop with his 15th home run. “It was over 100 degrees. Guys were starting to get dehydrated. It was not a good day to go extra innings.”
Yost said trainers had IVs waiting in the locker room.
“We were going to start losing guys,” Yost said. “We had some guys who were starting to cramp. Eric Hosmer’s elbow was starting to get a little stiff. The umpire was about ready to fall out behind home plate. The heat out there was pretty oppressive. When Billy hit that ball, I was just hoping it was high enough.”
Aaron Crow (1-1), the fifth Royals pitcher, was the winner after getting two outs in the eighth as the Royals recorded their first home sweep of the Rays in 11 years.
Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar also homered for the Royals, who managed to sweep a team three games immediately after getting swept themselves. After a potentially ruinous 12-game losing streak in April, the youthful Royals have fought back to five games under .500 (34-39).
“It would be nice if we made things easier for ourselves once in a while,” said Jeff Francoeur. “This is the third time now we’ve fought back to get to five games under .500, but then we just take a few steps back. Our goal was to get back to .500 by the All-Star break.”
The Rays had tied it 4-4 in the top of the eighth after Carlos Pena reached leading off on an error that left first base umpire Brian Gorman wiping off blood. Pena’s hot grounder glanced off first baseman Hosmer’s glove and struck Gorman on the left side of the face as he was signaling the ball fair.
The veteran ump cleaned some blood off his face but stayed in the game.