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CHICAGO -- Ten steps and a slide away from his perch at shortstop, Alcides Escobar sat on the outfield grass at Wrigley Field. A ball had just glanced off his black glove and fallen for a walk-off single that gave the Cubs a 2-1 extra-innings win over Kansas City on Sunday.
Escobar remained where the 11-inning game had ended seconds earlier, picking up the ball that had eluded him and slamming it into the ground. David Ross' bloop single off Jason Frasor was nearly another simple out. Instead, it handed Kansas City its fifth loss in its past six games.
"That's a perfect hit," Escobar said.
The ball landed softly between Escobar and left fielder Alex Gordon, a few feet separating the pair making for a flawless destination for Ross' heroics. The loss for Kansas City spoiled another solid outing by Yordano Ventura and knocked the club out of first place in the American League Central for the first time in 23 days.
Kansas City now trails Minnesota by half a game in the division.
In the 11th inning, Chicago's first two batters reached, courtesy of walks issued by Ryan Madson. Madson needed just nine pitches to work a clean 10th inning, prompting Royals manager Ned Yost to trot him back out for another frame.
"See if we could squeak one more out of him," Yost said. "Let's see if we can get another couple three outs or a couple two outs before we go to the pen. It just didn't happen."
Madson departed after the pair of walks and Frasor entered. He yielded a softly struck single to Anthony Rizzo, who appeared to be the hero as Dexter Fowler rounded third base and headed home. Gordon bobbled the ball in left field before uncorking a throw home, where Salvador Perez applied a swift tag to Fowler.
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Fowler was out, and a three-minute, 15-second review upheld the call.
"I just chucked it," Gordon said.
With runners on second and third and one out, Frasor intentionally walked Starlin Castro, setting the stage for Ross' walk-off hit.
"Heartbreak City," Frasor said.
In the seventh inning, Ventura gave up an RBI single to Chris Coghlan, a hit that ruined his brilliant start and trashed the slim lead Kansas City held entering the seventh inning. Coghlan was the only Cub able to solve Ventura on Sunday, picking up three of the club's four hits off the 23-year-old.
"He'd hit a curveball before," Christian Colon translated for Ventura. "He hit the fastball in one of the at-bats earlier. He didn't see the changeup. He just kind of threw it, left it up and he put a good swing on it.
"It was his day today."
His third one was the most damaging, sullying Ventura's spotless line.
After slashing a double in the second and ripping a single in the fifth, Coghlan jumped on a first-pitch, 88-mph changeup and dumped it into center field. The hit brought home pinch runner Jonathan Herrera from second and tied the game at one just seven outs away from a Royals win. Coghlan was erased at second base trying to stretch the hit into a double.
Herrera pinch ran for Miguel Montero, the recipient of Ventura's uncharacteristic wildness in the seventh. Ventura hadn't walked a batter all day prior to issuing a free pass to Montero. Ventura also hadn't thrown a wild pitch on the afternoon, but the second pitch to Jorge Soler zoomed to the backstop, allowing Montero to move into scoring position. That's when Herrera entered the game.
Ventura delivered his fourth straight outing of at least seven innings, Sunday's performance the latest in a string of impressive starts for the right-hander.
Coghlan's single destroyed the feeble one-run lead the Royals had constructed in the sixth inning. Kansas City used a pair of two-out walks to set up Gordon's RBI single. It was Gordon's second hit of the afternoon and shoved a slimmer of space between Chicago and Kansas City.
That space was removed by Coghlan and Chicago nearly pulled out a win in the bottom of the ninth inning against Wade Davis. With one out, Rizzo hooked a ball into the right-field corner, rebounding off Wrigley Field's brick and eluding Alex Rios. Rizzo hustled into third, beating the relay and putting the Cubs 90 feet away from a walk-off win.
Davis intentionally walked Castro before adeptly fielding Ross' safety squeeze attempt. With two outs and runners on second and third, Davis locked horns with Soler.
The first two fastballs went for strikes. The next two veered outside the zone. A foul ball, then a ball ran the count full. On the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Davis fooled Soler with a cutter, ending the threat and extending the game into extra innings.
Two innings later, Ross came through with the perfect hit.
"I knew it would take an outstanding play to make it," Yost said. "Esky almost had it."
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
