KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As fun as these comeback victories are getting to be, Royals’ All-Star Billy Butler has some words of caution:
“We’re not going to do this every night, OK?” Butler said with a smile in the aftermath of the Royals’ pulsating 3-1 win over Minnesota on Monday.
That makes it three come-from-behind wins for the 4-3 Royals in the season’s first week.
“There’s just a feeling now that maybe we haven’t had in a while,” Butler said. “We have that confident feeling that even when we get behind, our starting pitching will hold the score down and give us a chance to come back. With our pitching, we’re going to get our chances, and it’s up to us on the offensive side to come through.
“Like I said, we can’t do it every night like this, but it sure is fun now.”
The Royals’ offense was virtually lifeless for seven innings before suddenly rising up for three runs in the eighth to overcome a 1-0 deficit, much to the delight of the 40,073 fans at Kauffman Stadium for the home opener.
“This means a lot,” Royals skipper Ned Yost said. “It was just nice to be able to show our fans what we can do and let them see in person what maybe they’ve been reading about.
“It’s special. When we came out of the dugout to start the game and we saw all that blue and light blue in the crowd, it took your breath away.”
And it was the Royals who returned the favor by leaving their fans breathless in the bottom of the eighth, a rally that started with Lorenzo Cain’s slicing double into the right-field gap.
Chris Getz followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt, which drew a huge ovation. That was just the warm-up for the crowd eruption that followed when Alex Gordon drilled a single to right over the pulled-in infield, tying the score 1-1.
Then Yost, whose hit-and-run call with Jeff Francoeur in Chicago helped fuel a win, again dialed up the motion game.
Gordon took off, and Alcides Escobar smoked a fastball down the right-field line. With the running start, Gordon easily scored the go-ahead run.
“You know, we were going to do that on the first pitch,” Yost said. “I wanted to do it right away while there was still a lot of confusion going on after Gordo’s hit and while there was still a lot of energy in the ballpark. And Esky did a great job – he’s really our best hit-and-run guy.”
Butler poked another hit to right, scoring Escobar to complete the rally.
Yost then turned to Aaron Crow in the ninth, opting to rest struggling closer Greg Holland as well as set-up man Kelvin Herrera, who had closed out Sunday’s win.
Crow worked around a one-out walk by inducing Brian Dozier to roll into a game-ending double play. It was just Crow’s third career save.
“I wasn’t going to throw those guys (Holland and Herrera) three days in a row,” Yost said. “Not this early in the season. So it was an easy decision to go (with Crow). Look, he’s an All-Star. I have total confidence in him.
“He’s part of the ‘Big Four’ down in our pen with Kelvin and Greg and Tim (Collins). I have confidence in any one of those guys to close out a game.”
Confidence is the growing theme of these 2013 Royals.
“The guy I credit today is (Ervin) Santana,” Butler said. “He pitched a great game. He gave up that run in the first inning and then just shut them down for eight innings. That’s what gave us a chance. That’s why we’re getting confident.”
Third baseman Mike Moustakas agreed.
“(Santana) was great,” Moustakas said. “No one even gets down now if we fall behind by a run or two. We know our starting pitching will shut ‘em down until we start getting the bats going.
“We come to play nine innings. It sounds like a clichés but it’s true. We play all nine.”
The Royals twice fell behind 4-0 in Philadelphia over the weekend, and rallied to win both games.
It’s a relentless approach that Yost enjoys seeing.
“I don’t know if we’ve really had that in the past,” Yost said. “These guys here, they have total trust and confidence in each other. The pitchers have confidence in the hitters that they will eventually score runs. The hitters have confidence in the pitchers that they will keep it close and give them a chance to score runs.
“It’s really nice to see.”
