Luke Maile, Blue Jays walk off Royals in 19th inning of doubleheader

Yes, Luke Maile: the hitter that everyone wants up in a bases loaded situation.

Last season, Maile hit .146. He played in 46 games, collected only 19 hits and had only seven RBI. He missed much of the season because of injury, and wasn’t much more than an automatic out in the lineup.

Tuesday night, and 2018 as a whole. couldn’t be further than last season.

Maile hit a single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth to walk off the Kansas City Royals and take both games of the doubleheader, the second by a score of 5-4. It was the Toronto Blue Jays’ 19th inning of the day, after winning in nine earlier.

Maile, in total, had two hits, both of which scored runs. In the seventh, he scored the Blue Jays’ first two runs on a single to right field. He won the game with his hit in the 10th. Tuesday’s game brought Maile’s RBI total for the season to seven, matching his 2016 total in just five games.

Joe Biagini acted as the 26th man on Toronto’s roster for the second game of the doubleheader, making his first appearance in the majors in 2018. He went 5.2 innings and allowed three earned runs, but he could’ve easily given up more. Biagini allowed nine men to reach base, striking out four and walking three.

He very rarely looked sharp. The first Royals run scored in the first inning, when Biagini hit Lucas Duda with the bases loaded. He was lucky to escape that inning without more damage.

Behind 3-0 in the seventh, Maile started the scoring for the Blue Jays, followed by Devon Travis and Steve Pearce. Tying the game, Travis hit a single to score Randal Grichuk.

Travis wasn’t in the original lineup, but he entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch hitter. He was hit by a pitch on his left hand, the same hand that was hit by a pitch a game earlier (but more than half a week ago — thanks, weather), but it certainly didn’t hurt him in the second game; he had two singles in his two at-bats.

Pearce continued to slug his way at the top of the lineup, hitting a double and two singles in five at-bats.

The Blue Jays initially had trouble scoring, and were held off the scoreboard until the seventh. Given the way that Toronto hitters wore down on the Royals’ relievers in the first game of the doubleheader, eventually winning 11-3, it was unexpected.

The doubleheader was a rare occurrence at the Rogers Centre. On Monday, ice fell from the CN Tower and put a hole in the Rogers Centre roof above right field. Although repaired with time to spare before the scheduled 7:07 p.m ET game, the game was eventually cancelled when ice continued to fall from the CN Tower.