Athletics at Kansas City Royals

KANSAS CITY – The Royals didn’t really have much going offensively throughout Tuesday night in a fairly quiet game overall. Their best opportunity came in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. Maikel Garcia’s hard-hit liner went directly to right fielder Lawrence Butler’s glove. When the opportunity came around again, the Royals didn’t squander it. A ninth-inning comeback rally led to a 4-3 walk-off win over the A’s at Kauffman Stadium when Bobby Witt Jr. blooped a single into left field to give the Royals their third victory in a row and second of this four-game set against the A’s. “It’s just one of those games where you never know when that hit’s going to happen,” Witt said. “You’re just waiting and waiting and waiting, and then it happens. So that’s just baseball. We got the opportunities. We got them at the end of the game and came through.” Down by two runs in the ninth, Salvador Perez reached first base on a catcher’s interference, Michael Massey ripped a one-out single into center field and Carter Jensen walked to load the bases with one out. When Massey reached base as the tying run on first, John Rave came in to pinch-run for Perez at second. Against A’s lefty Hogan Harris, Tyler Tolbert stepped in to pinch-hit for left-handed batter Kyle Isbel, and – after a check swing call that ended up getting A’s manager Mark Kotsay ejected – Tolbert snuck the game-tying base hit through the left side of the infield. “Just try to grind through an at-bat,” Tolbert said. “Not try to do too much, and thank God I held up on the check swing.” The A’s turned to hard-throwing righty Elvis Alvarado to handle the top of the Royals’ order. Isaac Collins’ 96.3 mph lineout to center field represented the hardest-hit ball of the bottom of the ninth inning. Witt’s 66.2 mph bloop single represented the softest-hit ball of the frame. But he was ready for it on the first pitch, and all that mattered was that it found grass. “You know \[Alvarado\