Royals’ offense doesn’t support Danny Duffy in 1-0 loss to Indians

Danny Duffy collapsed at the waist and stared at the ground, his hands clutching his knees, his body still for a full three seconds. He sucked in a breath of air. He exhaled. Perhaps he knew.

It was the top of the fifth inning Sunday afternoon, and a baseball had just buzzed past Duffy’s glove hand, slipping into center field for an RBI single.

Cleveland’s Carlos Santana had flicked a 1-2 fastball up the middle. It missed Duffy’s glove by mere inches and broke a scoreless tie, and now Duffy leaned over, letting the frustration simmer. He looked at the ground. He breathed again. Perhaps he knew what the single run signified.

“I have to make that play,” Duffy said. “I got to be an athlete out there. That’s on me.”

In the moments after a 1-0 loss the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium, Duffy stood inside the Royals’ clubhouse and sought to shoulder responsibility for the loss. He seethed at the play he could not make. He criticized his efficiency. He recalled the pitches that could have gone differently in the decisive fifth inning.

“I can’t put any blame on anybody but myself,” he said. “So I got to pitch better. I got to make plays.”

It was at once a noble sentiment, a preposterous idea, and an illustration of the depths of the Royals’ offensive rot.

In the series finale Sunday afternoon, Duffy was nicked for just one run in 6  2/3 innings, rebounding from consecutive subpar efforts. He arrived at the ballpark just before 11 a.m. with his dog, Sadie, in tow, shepherding the Husky breed into the clubhouse. He would battle for 104 pitches as the Royals saluted the Negro Leagues on “Dressed to the Nines” Day. For his trouble, he was tagged with another loss when the Royals’ offense managed just one hit against Indians starter Mike Clevinger and a squadron of relief arms.

“Right now, we’re going through a scuffle,” Duffy said. “We’re going through a rough patch. It (stinks) in the moment.”

One day after losing a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning, the Royals dropped the series against the defending American League champions, falling to 3-12 in the AL Central. A season that began with designs on a third postseason appearance in four years, a last dance for a championship core, is skidding toward a full implosion before the 40-game mark.

The Royals (10-20) are 10 games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2012 season. Their offense is trending toward the historically awful. Just 18 months removed from a World Series championship, the franchise has turned the clock back to 2006.

“I didn’t envision this,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, sitting inside his office Sunday morning. “I didn’t anticipate this. And they didn’t either.”

On Sunday, the Royals were shut out for the fourth time this season, this time by a starting pitcher who spent the first month of the season at Class AAA Columbus.

Clevinger, 26, was making his first start, filling in for injured ace Corey Kluber, whose balky lower back forced him to the disabled list Wednesday. Clevinger had posted a 1.50 ERA in six starts for Class AAA Columbus. On Sunday, he limited the Royals to just one hit while striking out five and walking four in 5  2/3 innings.

The Royals have scored two runs or fewer in 15 of their 30 games. They have put up just 82 runs, averaging 2.73 per contest. No team has scored fewer than three runs per game over a full season since 1972. In the last decade, the 2010 Mariners and the 2013 Marlins share the mark for offensive futility, each scoring 513 runs in 162 games. Both teams lost more than 100 games.

The Royals, meanwhile, are on pace to score 443 runs, the sort of awfulness that does not appear sustainable. Yet how much improvement can reasonably be expected?

“They’re trying their (rears) off,” Yost said. “It’s just the results aren’t there.”

Case in point: the fourth inning on Sunday. With the scored tied 0-0, first baseman Eric Hosmer drew a one-out walk and catcher Salvador Perez placed a double just inside the left-field line. Hosmer cruised into third base. The offense had two runners in scoring position with one out. The Indians’ infield played back, conceding at least one run on a ground ball.

The ground ball never came. Clevinger froze Jorge Soler on a biting 2-2 curveball. He then struck out Jorge Bonifacio on a 3-2 curveball, ending the threat. The Royals finished the day with 11 strikeouts. Soler, who debuted on Saturday afternoon, is 0 for 6 with one bat broken in anger.

“You need to find a way to put the ball in play there, and we end up striking out twice,” Yost said. “It goes back to what I was saying before. When we were really successful in 2014 and 2015, we didn’t strike out much. We put the ball in play, we found ways to put the ball in play, and we’re just not really doing that right now."

Moments later, Yost returned to his office, and his starting pitcher was waiting at his locker as the clubhouse opened to the media. For close to three minutes, as the Royals prepared to take an evening flight for Tampa, Duffy tried to shoulder the burden for the loss.

“It’s just brutal,” he said. “But it’s part of the game. Everybody struggles. But again, regarding today, I have to be better.”

Indians 1, Royals 0

This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Royals’ offense doesn’t support Danny Duffy in 1-0 loss to Indians."