It's a storyline that has been written five teams so far this season, but also one that never gets old. Kansas City won on another walk-off this evening as they came back to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 in 10 innings. Taking his turn to be the hero this time was Jeff Francoeur, whose sac fly scored Alex Gordon from third as the Royals won their fourth game in a row and moved to 16-13 on the season.
Alex Gordon walked to begin the bottom of the 10th, and advanced to third on a Billy Butler single giving Kansas City a great opportunity to seize the win. Francoeur drove a 2-0 slider to right for the winning run.
RBI doubles by Wilson Betemit and Mike Aviles,as well as a Brayan Pena sacrifice fly got the Royals out to quick 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the second against Orioles starter Brad Bergesen who gave up four runs (three earned) over five innings.
Kansas City got 5.2 innings out of starter Jeff Francis, who allowed five runs on six hits. The biggest mistake of the evening was costly as he gave a three-run home run in the fourth inning to Luke Scott after there was two outs that tied the game at 3. Scott has continued to haunt the Royals as last year in he four home runs against Kansas City in just six games.
The teams again traded runs, before Baltimore took a brief 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth on an Adam Jones liner to right and Matt Wieters sacrifice as Francis exited and gave way to Blake Wood.
Jeremy Accardo entered in relief for the Orioles and promptly gave up a solo home run to Francoeur, his seventh of the season and his 22nd RBI, tied with Aviles for the team lead. With his game-winning hit, "Frenchy" took the lead with 23.
Kansas City had a chance in the bottom of the ninth with one out, as Pena doubled and Alcides Escobar reached on an error before Jason Berken worked his way out of a jam getting Chris Getz to ground into a fielder's choice and Melky Cabrera grounded out.
Tim Collins, who pitched to one batter in the top of the 10th inning picked up the win and moved to 2-1, while Berken took the loss and fell to 0-2.
As stated, Kansas City is now 16-13 and also 13-5 at home this season. Baltimore fell to 13-15. Jake Arrieta (3-1 5.01 ERA) will start tomorrow for the Orioles against Kansas City's Kyle Davies (1-3 7.98 ERA). It will be another 7:10 start as the Royals look for five straight wins.
The Royals sit four back of Cleveland who is playing out west this evening at Oakland. The Royals are currently tied for the American League Wild Card with Tampa Bay.