KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Salvador Perez hit a walk-off, two-run double as the Kansas City Royals scored two runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to beat the Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Whit Merrifield led off the ninth with a double. Kendrys Morales was hit by a pitch, and Jarrod Dyson pinch ran. After Eric Hosmer struck out, Perez launched one over the head of center fielder Leonys Martin for the winning run. Steve Cishek (2-5) took the loss for Seattle.
Brooks Pounders (1-0) pitched the ninth for Kansas City and picked up his first major league victory.
The Mariners wasted an efficient effort from starter James Paxton. Paxton threw just 57 pitches in the first seven innings. His most taxing innings were the sixth and seventh, in which he threw 11 pitches each.
The Royals finally made him work in the eighth. Back-to-back singles by Salvador Perez and Cheslor Cuthbert started the inning. They both scored on a two-out single by Paulo Orlando. But Alex Gordon flew out to center to end the inning. Paxton gave up two runs on seven hits, with one walk and two strikeouts in eight innings.
The Royals hitting has been all-or-nothing recently. In the last 25 games, Kansas City has hit .309 and scored 5.6 runs per game in 13 wins, but just .244 with 3.0 runs per game in 11 losses.
Danny Duffy was outstanding for Kansas City (44-41). He gave up two runs on seven hits through 6 1/3 innings. He walked one — his first in 88 batters — and struck out seven.
The Mariners (43-43) spotted Paxton a run in the second and added another in the fifth as the lefty kept the Royals off-balance all night, improving to 3-3 on the season.
Nelson Cruz hit his 23rd home run of the season off Joakim Soria to give the Mariners their final tally.
Paxton allowed runners to reach in each of the first three innings, including runners on first and second with nobody out in the third, but induced ground-ball double plays in all three frames.
Seattle scored in the second following a lead-off double to the gap in right-center by Dae-Ho Lee. He scored on Daniel Robertson’s first hit as a Mariner, a single up the middle.
The Mariners added to their advantage in the fifth. Robertson led off with a double off the wall in left. He was sacrificed to third and scored on Ketel Marte’s sacrifice fly.
Duffy scuffled through the first five innings. He gave up just the two runs, but allowed runners in every inning but the third.
NOTES: Seattle 3B Kyle Seager extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a two-out single in the fourth inning. … Kansas City RHP Chris Young will not make his next scheduled start Sunday. Young, who is 2-8 with a 6.90 ERA this season, has just two quality starts out of 13. He’s 0-3 with an 8.37 ERA in his last six starts. … Seattle, which started 19-8 on the road this season, entered Thursday’s game having lost 14 of their last 16 road contests, including nine straight. … The Mariners entered the night with 128 home runs, tied for second in the majors.