Photo by Kyle Rivas/Getty Images
Taylor was called up on Friday and came through on Saturday
The Kansas City Royals called up infielder Samad Taylor on Friday.
He came through in a big way for his club on Saturday in his MLB debut.
Taylor was in the starting lineup for the Royals on Saturday as they took on Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels. He was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks when he came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied at nine and Maikel Garcia on third. With one out, Taylor was looking to at least lift a fly ball deep enough to give Garcia a chance to tag up and score the winning run.
He did a little more than that:
Taylor launched a ball well over Mike Trout’s head that hit the wall in straight-away center, allowing Garcia to score and emptying the dugout in celebration. The game-winning single, the first hit of Taylor’s career, capped off a big comeback for Kansas City. The Royals were trailing 8-2 when they came to bat in the bottom of the seventh, but put eight runs on the board through the final three frames to pull out the 10-9 win.
While the Royals were celebrating, Bobby Witt Jr. made sure that his new teammate would get that baseball back:
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
Of course, the Royals’ comeback means we have to make a Tungsten Arm O’Doyle reference:
Shohei Ohtani took the MLB lead in home runs and Mike Trout had his first multi-hit game since May 29th as the Angels blew an 8-2 seventh inning lead against the Royals, the team with the worst record in MLB
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 17, 2023
Because of course.
