Royals’ walk-off grand slam spoils Twins’ rally behind Buxton, Polanco

KANSAS CITY, MO. — The Royals spoiled a perfectly lovely welcome-back party for Jorge Polanco and Byron Buxton on Friday.

Buxton, missing for three games after the birth of his son, started a ninth-inning rally with his first pinch-hit of the season, and Polanco, absent for seven weeks while his strained hamstring healed, finished it with a game-tying, two-out double.

But Kansas City rallied in the 10th inning against Twins closer Jhoan Duran, loading the bases ahead of Bobby Witt Jr.'s grand slam into the Twins' bullpen. Witt finished with four hits and six RBI to lead the Royals to just their second victory in 11 meetings with the Twins this season.

Witt also lofted what was initially called a home run in the sixth inning, but it was reduced by replay to an RBI double. In the 10th, after the Twins took a temporary lead on Kyle Farmer's two-out single up the middle, Witt came to the plate after back-to-back walks by Duran loaded the bases. He fourth off three pitches recorded at more than 101 mph, then hit a high fly just a few feet longer than his previous one, his first career grand slam and his first career walk-off homer.

The ninth-and-10th-inning back-and-force provided a surprise ending to a game that had the look of so many other Sonny Gray starts this year: The All-Star righthander with the fifth-best ERA in the league completely dominated Kansas City for most of it, needing only 62 pitches to retire 16 of the first 18 hitters he faced and even picking off one of the two who reached base.

Without warning, however, Gray suddenly allowed three consecutive hits and two runs, turning his one-run lead into a one-run deficit. It's the 15th consecutive start in which Gray, 4-0 in April and 0-5 ever since, has failed to earn a victory, just two short of the franchise record held by Roger Erickson (1978-79) and Liam Hendriks (2011-12).

Gray was one strike away from finishing off Royals leadoff hitter Maikel Garcia, but left a 2-2 fastball belt-high and on the outside corner. Garcia belted it off the right-field fence, and when it bounced away from Max Kepler, he wound up on third base with a triple.

Two pitches later, Witt Jr. smacked a low but in-the-middle cutter to the top of the left-field wall, and umpires initially ruled it a home run. Replay showed that it hit the padding and bounced back onto the field, and Witt was given a ground-rule double.

MJ Melendez followed with a line drive to right field, a single that drove Witt home — and likely drove Gray crazy. That's because it marked the third time in his past four starts that Gray has surrendered a lead with one uncharacteristically bad inning. And it's also only the second time in 11 meetings that the Royals have beaten the Twins this year, each of them by rallying from a 2-1 deficit.

BOXSCORE: Kansas City 8, Twins 5 (10 inn.)

The Twins, who scored eight runs against Kansas City starter Brady Singer in only 2 2/3 innings at Target Field in April, this time forced him to throw 104 pitches in only five innings. But they found it hard to score, leaving four runners in scoring position during his start.

The only inning they broke through against the Royals righthander was the fourth, and they did it in historic fashion. After Max Kepler led off with a double, Polanco and Matt Wallner struck out. But Willi Castro drew a walk, and Ryan Jeffers lined a two-out single to center, scoring Kepler and moving Castro to third base.

With Singer paying little attention to him, Jeffers headed for second base on a pitch to Joey Gallo. When rookie catcher Freddy Fermin threw there, Jeffers stopped short of the base while Castro broke for the plate. Second baseman Nicky Lopez hesitated as he considered throwing to the plate, then changed his mind and tried to tag Jeffers. But the hesitation cost him, and Jeffers reached the base safely as Castro scored.

It's the third time this season that Castro has stolen home on a double steal, making him the first Twin to steal home more than twice in a season since Rod Carew stole home seven times in 1969. And it was Jeffers' third stolen base this year, making him the first Twins catcher to collect more than two steals since Joe Mauer in 2012.

The play gave the Twins a temporary 2-1 lead, and it appeared they would add to it an inning later, when they loaded the bases with two outs. Wallner smashed a hard grounder down the first-base line, but Salvador Perez — starting at first base for only the fifth time in his 12-year career — made a diving stop and jumped to his feet in time to relay the ball to Singer. It was Perez's second diving play of the game, impressive for a Gold Glove catcher trying a new position.