The Baltimore Orioles entered the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday night’s game against the Kansas City Royals trailing by two runs, but with the help of three big swings, they strolled into the ninth with a comfortable lead.
It helped that two of those big swings were grand slams.
Baltimore left fielder Nolan Reimold got the craziness started when he stepped to the plate with one out. He blasted a 2-0 pitch from Royals right-hander Kelvin Herrera off the foul pole down the left field line.
Just like that, a 6-4 deficit turned into an 8-6 lead. But the Orioles weren’t done.
Royals manager Ned Yost yanked Herrera in favor of Franklin Morales following the grand slam. Morales promptly gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, Manny Machado. And it wouldn’t get any better for the southpaw.
Morales would not record an out in the inning, allowing all four batters he faced to reach base. Yost then turned to Joba Chamberlain to try to stop the bleeding, but that move didn’t work either.
Chamberlain walked the first batter he faced, and then, on a 3-2 pitch, the next batter, Steve Clevenger, crushed a grand slam over the wall in right-center field.
Boom. 14-6.
In a span of eight batters in the bottom of the eighth, the Orioles faced three different relievers and scored 10 runs without recording an out. Not bad.
According to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com, this marked “just the eighth time in baseball history two grand slams have been hit by the same team in one inning.” After Friday, Baltimore is now the only team to accomplish the feat twice (1986 and 2015).
Kansas City scored two runs in the ninth, but its rally came up short. Baltimore took the victory, 14-8.
[MLB.com]
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