Jeremy Guthrie responds but Royals’ bats don’t in 2-1 loss to Indians

The bats remained silent, the infallible relief pitcher wobbled and even instant replay officials in New York seemed to have it in for the Royals, who fell to the Cleveland Indians 2-1 before 30,361 fans Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Jeremy Guthrie had no victory to show for a redemptive pitching performance.

The Royals, coming off a bad week, started the next one off on the wrong foot, specifically the foot of Indians’ shortstop Jose Ramirez.

In the eighth inning, Ramirez reached first base as Alcides Escobar’s relay throw arrived to complete a double play and record the frame’s first two outs.

First-base umpire Bob Davidson called Ramirez safe, but no matter. Replay would fix it. The one shown on the Fox Sports Kansas City TV broadcast and the stadium’s big screen appeared to show the ball was in the glove of first baseman Eric Hosmer before Ramirez had his foot down on the bag.

“I thought he was out 100 percent,” Hosmer said. “Whenever I have a pretty good idea, I look in the dugout. As a first baseman, most of the times you can feel it, the ball hit the glove before the foot hits the bag. Sometime you can’t really tell, but this was definitely one where I felt he was out.”

Had the Royals gotten the call, reliever Wade Davis would have been working with two outs and bases empty, but second baseman Omar Infante could not cleanly field Jason Kipnis’ hot grounder and the Royals only got the out at second.

A walk and a Michael Brantley base hit later, and Davis, the most sure thing on the Royals’ staff, had surrendered his first run of the year in 23 innings. Davis took the loss and fell to 1-2, and now has an ERA of 0.39.

With the final 17 Royals hitters retired by starter Carlos Carrasco and four Indians relievers, there was no margin for error.

Tuesday marked the fifth time in seven games the Royals were held to one run, and they’ve lost six of seven to fall to 29-20.

In the process, Guthrie’s stellar comeback was wasted. Last Monday at Yankee Stadium, Guthrie surrendered 11 runs before recording a fourth out. How would he respond Tuesday night?

Like the pitcher who had won his previous three games before the meltdown.

“Once I got three outs and didn’t have 11 runs on the board, I was feeling grateful,” Guthrie said.

Things went Guthrie’s way from the first batter. Kipins’ drive was chased down and snagged by a leaping and tumbling Alex Gordon. Cap tips all around.

Guthrie cruised through the first three innings, keeping Indians’ hitters off balance with a variety of off-speed pitches.

But a Guthrie lost a battle with Brandon Moss in the fourth inning. On the 11th pitch of the plate appearance, Moss drove a 94 mph fastball to the back of the Indians’ bullpen in right to make it 1-1. The Royals thought Moss had struck out earlier on the bat, but Guthrie didn’t get a check swing strike call.

“I thought he had Moss struck out on the check swing, but I think Guthrie pitched great,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

The homer was the Indians’ first hit. The second came with two outs in the sixth when Santana doubled off the right field wall.

By then, Guthrie’s pitch count was a season-high 105. Instead of facing another round of left-handed hitters for the third time, Ned Yost got the hook and went with lefty Franklin Morales.

Guthrie walked to the dugout steps to a loud ovation. The Royals had gotten a stellar effort. The two Indians hits were a season-low in a Guthrie start.

Morales made sure Guthrie wasn’t tagged with the loss when he got Brantley to harmlessly fly to center field.

The Royals bats were futile once again, coming to life only in the third.

Mike Moustakas cracked a one-out single to right and moved to second when Indians catch Yan Gomes couldn’t handle Carrasco’s offering in the dirt for a wild pitch.

Lorenzo Cain’s ground out to second pushed Moustakas to third, and Hosmer, who struck out in his first plate appearance, roped a first-pitch RBI single to center.

That was it. The Royals got two runners on in the second and fourth innings but couldn’t score, and with no base runners over the final five innings all the Royals didn’t give themselves a chance. A questionable call and a double play not turned with one of baseball’s best relief pitchers on the mound became the undoing.

Indians 2, Royals 1

LOB: Cleveland 7, Kansas City 6. 2B: C.Santana (7), Chisenhall (10), K.Morales (16). HR: Moss (9), off Guthrie. RBIs: Brantley (31), Moss (29), Hosmer (32). SB: Kipnis (6).

Hold: Hagadone (5), Shaw (6), Rzepczynski (8). Inherited runners-scored: F.Morales 1-0. WP: Carrasco. T: 3:16. Att: 30,361.

This story was originally published June 2, 2015 at 10:38 PM with the headline "Jeremy Guthrie responds but Royals’ bats don’t in 2-1 loss to Indians."