Junis-Happ matchup ends in walk-off win for Royals

KANSAS CITY – The battle of two guys from Illinois turned into an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel as Rock Falls native Jake Junis took the hill for the Royals on Friday at Kauffman Stadium against the Toronto Blue Jays, led by St. Bede alum J.A. Happ.

Happ’s three perfect innings to open the game and long string of zeroes on the scoreboard were nearly matched by Junis, who worked around a handful of hiccups, though he did give up a pair of runs in the fourth.

In the end, it was a no decision for both as the Royals won 5-4 on a walk-off in the ninth, a double by Whit Merrifield off of Blue Jays reliever Jason Grilli driving in Alcides Escobar from third with the tying run and Alex Gordon from first with the winning run.

Junis (2-1) pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed two runs, both earned, off of six hits. He struck out four.

“I felt good, felt strong,” Junis said. “I had confidence before the game, felt good, so I was just about attacking hitters, getting ahead and letting my defense play behind me.”

Junis allowed a leadoff single to Jose Bautista to open the game, but got out of trouble with an unconventional double play, striking out Russell Martin as Royals catcher Salvador Perez caught Bautista trying to steal.

Junis worked around a two-out single in the second and a pair of two-out singles in the third.

Junis had a rough go of it in the fourth inning. He hit Kendrys Morales to lead off the inning, then gave up an RBI double to Troy Tulowitzki, with the ex-Royal Morales scoring from first. Tulowitzki then scored on a wild pitch.

“The fourth inning, when I hit Morales to lead off the inning, that’s never a good sign,” Junis said. “I’ve had trouble with that the last outing against the Angels, I hit a guy with nobody on. It hurt me. It hurt me again tonight. Next time out, I’ve just got to try and limit those.”

But after that, Junis was back to shutting the Jays down. He got a pair of groundouts to end the fourth, then set Toronto down one-two-three in the fifth, needing just eight pitches to do it. He got the first two batters of the sixth before Dwight Smith Jr. singled, then got Kevin Pillar to fly out to leave Smith stranded.

Junis walked Ryan Goins to lead off the seventh, and after a sacrifice bunt to move Goins over, Junis’ night was done, Peter Moylan on in relief. Moylan struck out Jose Bautista, walked Russell Martin, then struck out Josh Donaldson on a 79 mile-per-hour changeup.

Meanwhile, Happ (2-4) was matching Junis and then some. The first 10 Royals were all set down in order with three lazy fly balls to the outfield, three easy grounders, a pair of strikeouts, and a sharp line drive off the bat of Whit Merrifield to lead off the fourth that went straight into Donaldson’s glove at third.

Jorge Bonifacio doubled to end the bid a perfection, but Happ went right back to work. He induced a pair of routine grounders to end the fourth with no damage done, worked around Brandon Moss’ bloop single to left in the fifth, then retired the side in order in the sixth.

Happ needed 21 pitches to get through the first as Merrifield and Bonifacio fouled off pitch after pitch, but got through the next four innings on a total of 46 pitches.

Kansas City eventually got to Happ in the seventh. Lorenzo Cain raced around for a double, then scored when Perez hit an RBI single that dropped in just in front of Smith.

The Royals threatened in the eighth when Merrifield reached, but the Toronto bullpen held.

The Blue Jays added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth off of Royals reliever Joakim Soria, but a trio of Toronto relievers failed to get out of the ninth.

The win gets the Royals back to .500 at 36-36.

“We had a good road trip in California, and we’re just tryingto get that momentum going at home,” Junis said.