Billy Hamilton scores from second on sac fly

KANSAS CITY -- Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi may owe Billy Hamilton dinner.

With his blazing speed, Hamilton not only saved Mondesi an at-bat, but he also got Mondesi an RBI when he scored from second base on a fly ball to deep center field in the Royals' 6-3 loss to the Mariners on Tuesday.

In the bottom of the third inning, Mondesi sent a deep drive toward the warning track in center that was hauled in by tumbling Mariners outfielder Mallex Smith.

Hamilton tagged and never let up, rounding third and beating the relay throw with relative ease, tying the score at 2.

"Y'all know how big this field is already, so we always say we want to take the extra base on the offensive side,” Hamilton said. “You know he had to go a long way and he was running backwards. I mean, different story if he may have been camped under it, but he was running backwards. As a player, you can actually read stuff like that, and then he ended up falling a little bit.

“[Third-base coach Mike Jirschele] was sending me the whole time. I came back and told him, 'Man, I didn't see you anyway. I was going. I wasn't going to stop anyway, for sure.’"

Hamilton had a 30.1 ft/sec sprint speed per Statcast, which is elite level (MLB average is 27.0 ft/sec). The fastest third-to-home time for a Royal since Statcast debuted in 2015 was Terrance Gore’s 2.94. Hamilton had a 3.12 third-to-home time, tied for second fastest with Mondesi.

Smith said after the game, “That was a good play. The guy is fast. I just took a little bit too long to get up. He’s a fast guy. That’s not shocking to me. I’d have probably done the same thing.”