Samuel Basallo hits tiebreaking eighth-inning home run as Orioles beat Royals 5-3

Samuel Basallo’s smile lit up the dugout.

It was ear to ear, beaming, and it was contagious. No one who watched what this 21-year-old had just done could keep it from their face — the two-strike swing against left-hander Matt Strahm, the way Basallo stopped and stared and waited to see if the ball flying away would stay fair, and how, once it did, he raised both arms above his head and catapulted his bat toward Baltimore’s dugout.

Smile away, Sammy.

“It’s important to remember that it’s a kids’ game,” Basallo, who is not much older than a kid himself, said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “It’s important to go out there and have fun. It’s a game of failure, it’s a difficult game, but it is important to remember you can go out there and you can have fun and enjoy yourself.”

It’s even more fun when the ball leaves his bat like that.

Basallo’s two-run home run in the eighth inning shot the Orioles into the lead. With the advantage once more, right-hander Andrew Kittredge closed out a series-opening 5-3 win against the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

To that point, Baltimore had been in a back-and-forth battle. But, both times the Royals scored, the Orioles answered immediately.

First, after two runs crossed against right-hander Brandon Young in the fourth inning to tie the game, infielder Blaze Alexander’s solo homer established a new lead. And, after Isaac Collins hit a homer to begin the eighth off Young, Pete Alonso’s single and Basallo’s missile down the line allowed the Orioles to grab another lead.

Alexander was in the tunnel leading from the dugout to the clubhouse, so his view was only a sliver of the field. He saw the ball leave Basallo’s bat, then heard the crowd and watched as Basallo two-hand lobbed his bat to the dugout.

“I was like, ‘All right, something sick happened,’” Alexander said. “That was awesome, man. That’s just the kind of player Sammy is. Lefty on left, doesn’t matter. Two-run homer, game.”

The victory is Baltimore’s second straight, and it begins what could be an important series — for the morale of the club, if nothing else — considering this is the final three-game set ahead of the All-Star break.

What Craig Albernaz said before Friday’s game was both an acknowledgment of how good Young has been and an admission that the Orioles have generally underperformed.

“Our record is not the best,” Albernaz, the Orioles’ manager, said. “Not sure what our record would be without B.Y.”

Young is the unexpected glue for Baltimore’s starting pitching. The right-hander has a rotation-best 3.42 ERA. And as he stacked another seven strong innings onto a season full of these outings, Young is making a case as one of Baltimore’s most valuable players.

“The goal is to get deep in the game to get a chance to win. I think most of the time I did that,” Young said of the first half of his season. “There’s always room for improvement. I got to get the splitter in the right place moving forward, but I think, yeah, we’re in a good spot.”

Of course, his final pitch left the yard for a game-tying home run. He returned for the eighth inning at 77 pitches. He reached an 0-2 count against Collins, and his third pitch was a fastball that nicked the corner and would’ve been overturned as a strike had catcher Adley Rutschman challenged the ball. On the eighth pitch, Collins launched the second solo shot off Young to level the score.

The underperformance of the team as a whole casts Young’s role into an interesting light. Without injuries, he wouldn’t be in the rotation picture. Without him in it, the Orioles would be much worse off. Baltimore improved to 44-51. The Orioles are 12-3 in games Young has started and 32-48 in all others.

It’s no stretch to write that Young has been integral — a surprise, yes, but integral.

The same goes for Alexander, who arrived as a depth piece in a trade over the winter. Given Jordan Westburg’s season-ending elbow surgery, Alexander has morphed into an everyday player with a serious case as an All-Star snub.

“‘Blaze has stepped up’ is an understatement,” Albernaz said. “His ability to play all over the field is a huge asset for us. And how he’s come along at the plate, making those adjustments, and now he’s a real threat up there, and a threat in the sense of grinding out at-bats and taking hits the other way, and being able to do damage, as well. And he’s really owned the player he is right now.”

Alexander is hitting .306 with a .791 OPS, and his homer in the fourth added on to what was a small-ball approach in the second inning. Against Royals right-hander Luinder Avila, the Orioles recorded four singles, including RBI knocks from Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday.

That all set the groundwork for a key moment in the eighth, though. Albernaz opted against pinch hitting for Basallo against a southpaw, and he’ll be glad of that.

In the end, the smile wouldn’t leave Basallo’s face. Nor should it have.

“I enjoy every home run that I hit to the maximum,” Basallo said. “I don’t do those reactions to inconvenience anyone or anything like that. I’m just really enjoying the game.”

This article has been updated.