CLEVELAND — Jorge Soler’s longest home run drought of the season — 10 games — finally ended in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon.
The Royals’ slugging designated hitter blasted a two-run home run in a 5-run eighth inning, edging him closer to a franchise record. But it took Ryan O’Hearn’s second home run of the game to secure a 9-8 victory in 10 innings over the Indians in a wild Players’ Weekend series finale at Progressive Field.
The Royals held an 8-3 lead going into the eighth. But Franmil Reyes hit a solo shot off Jacob Barnes. Then, the Indians pushed across four in the ninth off Ian Kennedy on a solo shot by Francisco Lindor and a game-tying three-run homer by Reyes to left-center with two outs.
Soler’s 36th home run tied him for second on the franchise’s season home run list with Steve Balboni (1985). Soler now is within two of tying Mike Moustakas’ club record for homers in a season (38 in 2017).
Soler sent reliever Nick Wittgren’s 3-1 fastball a projected 437 feet, per Statcast, to left field. That broke a 3-3 tie.