Jason Vargas' star is dimmed in Royals' 10-2 loss to the Tigers

The artistry of Royals starter Jason Vargas is predicated on his impeccable accuracy and pinpoint command. His formula for success is reliant on a baseball world with order and consistency. A baseball inside the bottom of the strike zone must be called a strike. The artist must know and understand the confines in which he can operate.

On Monday night at Kauffman Stadium, Vargas’ genius — his command and control — was somewhat scattered. The rules-based order of the strike zone was turned upside down in the early innings. And the result, in the end, was a 10-2 beatdown at the hands of the Detroit Tigers.

In his first start since appearing in his first All-Star Game, Vargas was lit up for six earned runs and seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. He did not resemble the craftsman who carried the Royals’ rotation during the first half of the season. The run total and inefficiency represented his worst outing since before he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2015. The performance pulled his team back under .500 as it opened a four-game series against the middling Tigers.

“I wasn’t really competitive at all,” Vargas said. “I left a lot of pitches over the middle.”

The Royals (45-46) lost for a sixth time in seven games. They also lost shortstop Alcides Escobar, for a moment, to an apparent wrist injury after he was hit by a fastball from Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann in the seventh. After the game, Royals manager Ned Yost said the injury was not severe.

That left the final score, and the image of a struggling Vargas, as the most troubling images of the night. In moments, Vargas was handcuffed by an inconsistent strike zone from home plate umpire Tom Hallion, who according to MLB’s Pitch f/x technology, missed at least three pitches near the bottom of the strike zone in the early innings. Yet the real issue appeared not the zone but rather the pitches Vargas hurled toward it.

In the second, Tigers third baseman Nicholas Castellanos saw a 2-1 changeup and hammered a 432-foot moon-shot homer to center field. In the third, center fielder Mikie Mahtook turned on a 2-2 two-seam fastball on the inner half and clobbered a 445-foot homer into the fountains beyond left-center. The pair of two-run blasts stretched the Tigers’ lead to 6-0. Vargas was done three batters later, his night over after just 70 pitches.

As he stood near his locker, Vargas diagnosed the issue as a command problem. He couldn’t establish “a rhythm in the zone,” he said. When he fell behind, he lacked the pitches to battle back in counts.

“I left some pitches up and definitely got punished from it,” he said. “It was just a run of those type of situations where I wasn’t able to recover.”

For Vargas, who ended June with a league-leading 2.22 ERA, the night marked his second straight start of considerable regression. In his final outing before the All-Star break, he allowed six runs and three homers in five innings in a 9-6 win over the Seattle Mariners. In his last 7 2/3 innings, he has yielded a total of five homers. He surrendered just eight in his first 101 1/3 frames of the season.

In each start, Vargas said, the feeling was similar. It was easy, perhaps, to establish a trend of sorts. Yet Vargas did have 12 days between starts, with a short appearance in the All-Star Game in between. So the performance left him frustrated, but as he pondered his recent form, Vargas turned the focus to remaining consistent, to returning to routine. He did not appear overly concerned.

“We got a lot more starts left,” he said. “So to really put too much effort or too much thought into making corrections isn’t always the key.”

Vargas was so dominant in the season’s first three months that something had to give. He could not remain on a Koufaxian pace while tossing fastballs at an average of 86 mph. He was due to fall back to earth. Yet Monday’s performance was something like a splash of cold water to the face. On the first pitch of the night, Detroit’s Ian Kinsler drove a double 406 feet to center field. It would not get much better from there.

Kinsler added an RBI triple in the second inning and another triple in the third. The Tigers grabbed hold of the game and did not relinquish control. The Royals' offense could not keep pace against a formerly struggling Zimmermann.

“It was just one of those nights,” Yost said.

On Monday morning, the Tigers sat at eight games under .500. Rumors swirled about the futures of outfielder J.D. Martinez and even ace Justin Verlander. Were the Tigers about to sell?

Zimmermann, Detroit's starting pitcher on Monday, opened the series with his ERA at 5.87 after 17 starts. The matchup appeared to be tilted toward the Royals. Yet Vargas was battered and the offense could not solve Zimmermann. He yielded just one run in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out seven while walking zero. He allowed fewer than three runs for the first time since June 14, a span of four starts.

The Royals scored just seven runs in three games while losing a series to the Texas Rangers over the weekend. On Monday, they once again reverted back into their April form, striking for one in the seventh before Eric Hosmer roped a solo shot into the right-field bullpen in the eighth, his 13th homer of the season.

By then, Yost had emptied the bench, removing Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain. The outcome was all but decided. Vargas had stumbled for a second straight start.

“He just wasn’t sharp,” Yost said. “He struggled with command. His pitches were kind of flat. Just one of those nights.”

Tigers 10, Royals 2

a-flied out for Cain in the 7th. 1-ran for Escobar in the 7th.

E: Hosmer (3). LOB: Detroit 9, Kansas City 11. 2B: Kinsler (13), Presley (5), Merrifield (20). 3B: Kinsler 2 (3). HR: Castellanos (12), off Vargas; Mahtook (5), off Vargas; Hosmer (13), off Saupold. RBIs: Kinsler (24), Castellanos 2 (49), V.Martinez 3 (36), Mahtook 2 (19), Iglesias 2 (27), Merrifield (34), Hosmer (43). SF: Iglesias.

Runners left in scoring position: Detroit 5 (Kinsler, Castellanos, J.Martinez, Mahtook 2); Kansas City 5 (Hosmer 2, Moss, Gordon, Burns). RISP: Detroit 5 for 15; Kansas City 0 for 7. Runners moved up: Cabrera, Avila, Torres. GIDP: Kinsler 2. DP: Kansas City 2 (Merrifield, Hosmer), (Moustakas, Merrifield, Hosmer).

Saupold pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored: Saupold 1-0, Stumpf 1-0, Hardy 1-0, Alexander 1-0. HBP: Zimmermann (Escobar), Saupold (Bonifacio).

Umpires: Home, Tom Hallion; First, Phil Cuzzi; Second, Vic Carapazza; Third, Mark Ripperger. Time: 3:29. Att: 26,359.

This story was originally published July 17, 2017 at 10:45 PM with the headline "Jason Vargas' star is dimmed in Royals' 10-2 loss to the Tigers."