In fireman role, Long continues to step up for Royals

KANSAS CITY – Michael Wacha stood in the dugout with a towel around his shoulders intently watching the field Thursday night.

The Royals starter had just exited the game after 5 1/3 innings with one out and two runners on, handing it over to reliever Sam Long with the Royals trailing by a run. When Long walked center fielder and No. 9 hitter Tyler Freeman to load the bases and turn the lineup over with two outs, momentum was teetering toward the Guardians dugout.

Long put it back on the Royals’ side with a strikeout of Steven Kwan, who owned a 6.8% strikeout rate entering Thursday. Long slammed his left hand into his glove as he walked off the mound. Wacha let out a yell and clapped in the dugout.

“Whew, I was fired up,” Wacha said. “I want to be out there in that situation, because those are my runs out there. I feel like I can get out of those innings, but it was time to get that left-on-left look to them. And he delivered.”

It was the biggest moment in the Royals’ eventual 2-1 win over the Guardians at Kauffman Stadium, the first game of a four-game set as the Royals try to gain some ground on the division-leading Guardians (51-28).

The Royals are looking at relievers to add at this year’s Trade Deadline, as the bullpen's 4.36 ERA ranks 20th in baseball. But a big key as the Royals (45-38) aim to make a run in the second half will be the internal improvements helping stabilize the ‘pen.

Long, who signed a Minor League deal with the Royals this offseason, has earned his way into high leverage spots since he was called up in May.

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None have been bigger than Thursday’s.

“Coming in, I was just trying to get in where I fit in,” Long, whose 1 2/3 hitless innings Thursday lowered his ERA to 1.98, said. “I wasn't really sure what they were going to ask me to do, so I’ve approached every game like my name could be called anywhere. I don’t want to take any situation lightly. Every pitch matters in the long run.”

With runners on first and third, Long struck out lefty hitter Bo Naylor on a slider to get to two outs in the sixth. But he walked Freeman, setting up another left-on-left matchup with Kwan, but not a comfortable one given Kwan’s unrelenting ability to make contact.

Long got ahead with a called strike, then got to a 1-2 count before throwing a slider down and away. Kwan chased it for strike three.

“Getting ahead was really big,” Long said. “I know he’s a guy that doesn’t strike out. So after getting ahead, that’s when I just needed to turn to my best stuff.

“I feel like I need to approach each batter the same. You definitely feel the energy, you feel the situation of the game, but you just try to focus on what you need to do to get them out. It’s definitely a fun situation, though.”

Long’s adrenaline was pumping when he got to the dugout, but he settled down quickly because he knew he would go back out for the seventh. The situation got even bigger when the Royals scored two in the bottom of the sixth.

Suddenly, there was a lead to protect.

The Guardians pinch-hit lefty Daniel Schneemann for rookie Jhonkensy Noel, a hitter Long had faced earlier in the year in Triple-A and who quickly struck out on three pitches Thursday.

Next up was Guardians slugger José Ramírez, who got ahead in a 3-0 count.

“I’m not going to give in there,” Long said. “In a spot like that, I don’t want to put anybody on base for free. I just told myself to make good pitches. I knew he’d be a little more aggressive there, just because it’s later in the game, and he’s ahead in the count, way ahead. So I wanted to go after him with stuff in the zone.”

Long threw a fastball in the zone for strike one. Ramírez swung through a slider and fouled off a curveball. Long went to his slider again, and Ramírez struck out by fouling it back into catcher Salvador Perez’s glove.

Long finished the inning against lefty Josh Naylor, who hit a soft comebacker back at him.

“That’s hard to do, to go back out after using all that emotion to get out of the spot in the sixth,” manager Matt Quatraro, who was ejected in the fifth inning, said. “To go back out and have a really clean inning was massive for us to set up [the] four games against these guys.”