Punchless Royals fail to score again as division-rival Indians complete sweep

The bullpen door swung open Sunday, and out jogged Onelki Garcia in the bottom of the second inning, a signal that something had gone horribly wrong.

The Royals were in the early throes of a 12-0 thrashing at the hands of the Cleveland Indians, finishing a three-game sweep that would mark the worst offensive stretch in franchise history. But for the moment, here was Garcia, a 28-year-old journeyman left-hander.

Garcia defected from Cuba seven years ago, risking his life during a harrowing journey to the United States. He debuted for the Los Angeles Dodgers in September 2013, making three appearances across 10 days. From there, his career went nowhere.

He kicked around the minors for two seasons. He was cast away to the Mexican League in 2016. And then last October, he signed a minor-league contract with the Royals, spending much of this season at Class AAA Omaha. On Sunday, he was sitting in the visitors bullpen at Progressive Field, and the chain of events that had presaged this moment were telling.

Garcia was here because starter Danny Duffy landed on the disabled list Saturday because of elbow issues, and the Royals needed depth for long relief. He was warming up in the second inning because emergency starter Eric Skoglund, a rookie filling in for Duffy, was in the process of getting savaged for seven earned runs in 1  1/3 innings. Garcia was here because the minor-league system offered few alternatives after a slew of injuries to starting pitchers.

And then, moments later, he was in the game, facing Cleveland’s Carlos Santana with two men on and one out. On Garcia’s first major-league pitch in four years, he threw a two-seam fastball for a strike. On his next, Santana roped a three-run homer off the foul pole in left field.

In the midst of a humbling weekend at Progressive Field, here was one enduring image of frustration. Yet it was not the most futile one. That honor belonged to the Royals’ offense.

In a three-day span in Cleveland, the offense set a franchise record by extending its scoreless drought to 34 innings, eclipsing the previous mark of 32, set in 2004. In a span of 72 hours, the Royals (64-65) were shut out three straight times for the second time in club history, lost their fourth straight game and dropped below .500 for the first time since Aug. 11.

“Guys are just trying to do a little too much,” second baseman Whit Merrifield said. “We all know we’re struggling.”

There was little relief from the ugly numbers: In three days in Cleveland, the Indians outscored the Royals 20-0. On Sunday, the combination of Skoglund and Garcia surrendered 12 runs in the opening two innings.

The Royals’ last run came in the bottom of the second on Thursday, a solo homer by Brandon Moss in a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies. By the end of the day Sunday, the Royals had been held scoreless 13 times this season, the most in the majors.

“If you break it down, you take away the first two innings, and we’re still out there playing,” manager Ned Yost said wryly, seeking to find some levity in the beatdown.

OK, so where to start in this one? Skoglund was making just his fourth career major-league start, filling in for the injured Duffy. In his previous outing, he had survived just 1  1/3 innings, surrendering two earned runs to the San Diego Padres in early June. On Saturday, the results were even more disastrous. Skoglund yielded three runs in the first inning while surrendering hard hit after hard hit. He recorded just one out in the second before Yost emerged and called on Garcia.

“That’s a pretty quality lineup,” Skoglund said. “You have to make quality pitches. It was good to be out there again but didn’t turn out as I planned.”

Skoglund was lit up for seven runs on seven hits and two walks, including a two-run homer by Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor. Skoglund’s pitches strayed high in the strike zone for most of his outing. He attributed some of the struggles to rust after last pitching on Aug. 15.

“I was excited to be out there,” he said. “It’s been like two weeks. You got to make quality pitches. I didn’t do that.”

Once Skoglund departed, Garcia entered and allowed the three-run homer to Santana and a grand slam to Yan Gomes that stretched the Indians’ lead to 12-0. Yet if there was a silver lining in the loss, it was Garcia settling in and offering 5  2/3 innings, saving the bullpen from a long day.

“We were lining up five guys to go an inning apiece down there,” Yost said. “And we didn’t have to do it.”

In another season, of course, perhaps a weekend like this would have sounded like a death rattle. As a championship core nears free agency at season’s end, the Royals are now 9-16 in August. After going 1-5 against the Indians in the span of two weekends, they are nine games out of first place. But this is not most seasons, and even after the sweep, they remained just 2  1/2 games behind Minnesota in the race for the second wild-card spot.

“That’s always kind of like your fallback plan — Plan B,” Yost said of the still feasible wild-card race. “We certainly didn’t help ourselves this weekend.”

On late Sunday afternoon, the Royals packed their belongings and boarded a charter flight back to Kansas City, where they will open a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night. In the moments after a beating, after the worst offensive stretch in team history, Plan B was the only thing offering consolation.

“Obviously, you want to be a little more consistent,” Merrifield said. “But it’s over. There’s nothing we can do about it now. Fly home, regroup, try to go get Tampa.”

Indians 12, Royals 0

This story was originally published August 27, 2017 at 3:11 PM with the headline "Punchless Royals fail to score again as division-rival Indians complete sweep."