Rays 2, Royals 1
Casey Kotchman led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run on the first pitch to give the Tampa Bay Rays a 2-1 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals on Monday night.
Kotchman had three hits, including an RBI single to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh. He hit the first walk-off home run of his career to straightaway center field off reliever Blake Wood (5-1).
Kyle Farnsworth (4-1) pitched a perfect ninth inning to get the victory.
Alex Gordon doubled to open the game, moved to third on Melky Cabrera’s single and scored on Eric Hosmer’s RBI single as the Royals took a 1-0 lead. Cabrera had two hits.
Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson allowed one run on six hits over 7 1/3 innings. He threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of 31 batters. Joel Peralta got the final two outs of the eighth with two runners on base.
Kansas City starter Luke Hochevar allowed five hits and one run over seven innings, throwing 106 pitches.