Alcides Escobar hit by pitch, exits early as Royals lose 7-5 to Indians

On his hands and knees, Royals trainer Nick Kenney spoke to Alcides Escobar, searching for signs of cognizance moments after a 96-mph fastball rattled the left earflap of his batting helmet. Upon impact, Escobar crumpled at the waist. He fell face-down in the dirt of Progressive Field and experienced dizziness.

On the mound, Cleveland Indians pitcher Danny Salazar buried his face in his glove. The Royals’ Mike Moustakas crouched in the on-deck circle and covered his mouth with his hand. Kenney, Kansas City manager Ned Yost and assistant trainer Kyle Turner rolled Escobar to his back. They helped him sit up. Escobar looked dazed and disoriented, a frightful, fifth-inning sight in a 7-5 Royals loss.

Escobar walked off the field with Kenney and Turner at his side. The initial diagnosis was a bruised left cheek. Escobar passed tests ruling out a broken jaw but was not cleared of a concussion. He recoiled when a cameraman flashed a light in his face after the game. He felt a light headache.

“I saw the video,” Escobar said. “Wow. That’s hard.”

Yost said that the club would re-evaluate Escobar on Thursday. The medical staff did not feel he needed to go to a hospital. Yost admitted there was “some concern,” about a concussion, but pointed to Escobar’s improving condition as reason for optimism.

The injury to Escobar occurred midway through a deflating outing. Kansas City starter Yordano Ventura managed to exit a game without a cramp or an ejection, but he blew a sixth-inning lead and allowed five runs. Franklin Morales failed to protect Ventura as Cleveland strung together a three-run frame.

Ventura lamented a lack of command, which led to four walks and mistakes over the middle of the plate. “He said he was trying to go out there and throw strikes, and he just didn’t have it today,” said Jeremy Guthrie, who translated for Ventura. “He didn’t have it.”

The Indians rally negated a two-run blast by Eric Hosmer in the top of the inning. It also reduced Kansas City’s momentum heading into a four-game clash with the Detroit Tigers this weekend at Kauffman Stadium. The Tigers erased a four-run deficit Wednesday afternoon against the Minnesota Twins to pull a half-game ahead of the Royals in the American League Central with a record of 15-7.

Kansas City (14-7) split the six games on this trip with the Chicago White Sox and the Indians. The jaunt revealed a flaw worth monitoring, despite the team’s impressive start. Through 21 games, the Royals have received a quality start on just seven occasions. Ventura (2-2, 4.94 ERA) became the latest man to buckle in the sixth inning.

“You take what you get,” Yost said. “Do I want them to go a little bit deeper in the game? Yeah, sure. But our bullpen is deep enough so that we can cover that.”

A spotlight has shown on Ventura for weeks, all for unsavory reasons. He pitched on Wednesday as he appealed a seven-game ban from Major League Baseball for inciting a melee in Chicago last week. Ventura probably will serve the suspension starting Thursday, but his reputation has already been sullied.

The brawl with the White Sox was the third extracurricular incident featuring Ventura, a total accrued after only four starts. He traded words with Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout. He plunked Brett Lawrie of the Oakland Athletics with a 99-mph fastball. When MLB fined him for targeting Lawrie, Ventura vowed to avoid any more incidents.

Then Chicago’s Adam Eaton spewed something as he ran down the first-base line, and Ventura responded with a two-word phrase that was not difficult to discern. The ensuing fight resulted in suspensions for four Royals. Ventura expressed remorse for his role as an instigator, and members of the team counseled him to keep his cool on the mound.

Ventura lounged on a couch before Wednesday night’s game. He held a Nintendo controller. He guided Mario through various travails and obstacles as Edinson Volquez offered color commentary. Ventura handed the controller to Volquez and sauntered over his locker, where he sat with a hoodie covering his head.

When the game began, Yost and pitching coach Dave Eiland noticed Ventura making a conscious effort to stay calm. His fastball clocked in at a few ticks below his usual velocity.

“It’s all kind of a learning process,” Yost said. “Because he’s always pitched with reckless abandon, and fire and that edge, we want to call it. And in the first two or three innings, he tried to tone that edge down a little bit. We said, ‘Hey, that’s not what we want you to do. We want you to continue to have that fire and have that edge, and just control those emotions.’”

The offense staked Ventura a two-run lead. Kendrys Morales continued powering the lineup with a two-out, two-run single up the middle in the first inning.

Ventura retired six of the first seven batters he faced. The third inning was far less enjoyable. Catcher Roberto Perez and outfielder Michael Bourn both singled. Ventura threw a pair of balls to second baseman Jason Kipnis. When he tried a 95-mph fastball, Kipnis drilled his first home run of the season.

“He made mistakes in the middle of the plate,” Yost said. “That ended up burning him.”

The Royals recouped the advantage with Hosmer’s second homer of the season. He blasted a 2-1 fastball over the elevated wall in left-center field.

Ventura had a lead for the second time in the game. Once again, he failed to hold it. With one out, Lonnie Chisenhall thumped a double off the center-field wall. Perez tied the game with another double.

“Just a bad day,” Guthrie said, speaking for Ventura. “He’ll go back to work and get ready for his next one.”

Yost removed Ventura for Morales, who promptly gave up a double to Bourn. The ball ripped off Hosmer’s glove as he leapt in vain to snag it. Bourn came around to score on a bunt by Kipnis. In the eighth, reliever Ryan Madson gave up a solo shot to Perez to pad Cleveland’s lead.

So the trip ended with a whimper. The team was optimistic about Escobar’s condition. They missed a chance to punish the Indians in their slow start. But Yost sounded content with the results.

“You play .500 on the road, you’re doing alright,” Yost said. “Especially against a couple of teams in your division.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 7:56 PM with the headline "Alcides Escobar hit by pitch, exits early as Royals lose 7-5 to Indians."