As the baseball bounced onto a walkway in right-center field, Detroit’s Justin Upton rounded first base and pointed his finger toward the sky. On the mound, Joakim Soria looked back toward home plate and asked for a new baseball. As another disastrous loss came into focus, Kauffman Stadium was suddenly stunned, a wave of quiet filling the park.
In the moments after a thrilling comeback in the bottom of the seventh, Soria coughed up a lead once more, allowing a back-breaking two-run homer to Upton in a 6-5 loss Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.
In the pivotal rubber match of a three-game series, the Royals lost in devastating fashion for the fourth time in five games.