Royals fall for eighth time in 10 games with 8-3 loss to Cleveland

The baseball bounced off the top of the right-field wall, and Alex Rios stared into the stands, trying to discern its landing spot. He walked away from the wall, his pace leisurely, unaware the ball had traveled in the opposite direction and play was still live behind him, a double turning into a triple in Monday’s eighth inning at Progressive Field.

The imagery was cruel, but the connection to the rest of the Royals was apt after an 8-3 loss to the Indians. The season is not over, the division has not been clinched and their quest for home-field advantage is imperiled. Yet for the past fortnight, as they’ve lost eight of 10, the team has conducted itself as if all has been decided.

The defeat on Monday accompanied a minor thud. After a victory by Minnesota, Kansas City, 84-59, saw its lead in the American League Central shrink to single digits for the first time since Aug. 8. The advantage still classifies, statistically, as more or less insurmountable. At nine games, it is the second-largest division lead in baseball. But worry persists.

Manager Ned Yost compared this malaise to a virus. The symptoms involve mediocre starting pitching (Edinson Volquez gave up four runs in five innings), stagnant offense (Indians starter Carlos Carrasco struck out nine in six one-run innings) and untrustworthy relief (Kelvin Herrera gave up three runs in the seventh). Yost does not intend to administer treatment, in this metaphor, but let the club heal itself.

“It’s like getting the flu,” Yost said. “You’ve got to let it run its course. Once it runs its course, then you’re fine.”

The atmosphere inside the clubhouse after the game was subdued but relaxed. Most of the players watched Monday Night Football and picked at dinner. The volume on conversation was low, but smiles were evident.

“We lost a couple of games in a row, and a lot of people started going crazy with it,” Volquez said. “But we don’t worry about that. Because we’re still nine games up.”

The team had a chance to keep the lead at 10 games. The Royals climbed back into the contest in the seventh. Trailing by three, they benefited from a pair of infield singles by Alex Gordon and Ben Zobrist. On both, rookie third baseman Giovanny Urshela could not make a play. The first scored Salvador Perez. The second scored Rios.

But then Herrera stumbled. Earlier on this trip, he gave up a back-breaking grand slam in Baltimore. Now he allowed an RBI single to Lonnie Chisenhall and a two-run double to catcher Yan Gomes. His teammates never recovered, and Rios was fooled on Lindor’s run-scoring hit off Franklin Morales an inning later.

“We need to pitch better,” Yost said. “We need to pitch better.”

Kansas City limped into Cleveland after losing three series in a row for the first time all season. The players did not appear perturbed by their 4-8 record this month before Monday. The pregame conversation inside the clubhouse resembled most American workplaces: They were debating the first week of the NFL.

A last-second loss by the New York Giants inspired a discussion about whether Eli Manning could be considered “elite.” Lorenzo Cain teased Eric Hosmer, the son of a New York City firefighter and a fervent Giants fan. “If he’s elite, then I’m as good a hitter as Miguel Cabrera,” Cain said as Hosmer, furious at the taunting, stormed off to go hit.

Across the room, Volquez grabbed a Mountain Dew and sat down to read a scouting report on the Indians. He is still the team’s most trustworthy starter, unlike his good friend Johnny Cueto, whose ongoing travails carried conversation a day after his eight-run meltdown on Sunday evening.

Kansas City spotted Volquez a one-run lead in the first. It only required one pitch. Alex Gordon drove a 95-mph fastball from Carrasco over the fence in right to start the game.

Cain soon rolled a single, and the Royals looked in business. Except Cain allowed himself to be picked off by Carrasco. The rally fizzled. Carrasco retired 14 of the next 16 batters he faced.

“You don’t know what happens if we can get another hitter to the plate,” Yost said. “Those kid of guys, you get a fairly good idea that he’s going to get settled in.”

In the interim, the Indians drilled Volquez. Jason Kipnis tied the game with a homer to start the bottom of the first. The occasion marked the first time the Royals had traded leadoff homers in a game since Aug. 17, 2006, when David DeJesus went deep for Kansas City and Pablo Osuna did the same for the White Sox.

Cleveland pulled ahead in the third. Volquez issued a pair of walks, one to rookie shortstop Francisco Lindor and a second, with two outs, to first baseman Carlos Santana. Volquez fed Chisenhall a changeup down the middle, and Chisenhall thumped an RBI double.

Volquez struggled to find his footing on the Progressive Field mound. His pitches continued to rise in the strike zone. “I had a hard time finding my rhythm, and throwing the ball down,” Volquez said.

The Indians scored a run in each of Volquez’s final two innings. The run in the fourth raced off the bat of Urshela. He barreled up a fastball and pounded it over the center-field fence. Volquez’s followed through spun him nearly 180 degrees away from the plate, and he hung his head upon impact.

“I was fighting myself, to tell myself to stay back and execute pitches,” Volquez said. “But I wasn’t able to do that tonight.”

Volquez let the Indians peck away for another run in the fifth. He walked Lindor to start the inning. Michael Brantley hit a single. With Alcides Escobar shaded over second base, Santana hit a single in Escobar’s usual territory. A sacrifice fly from Chisenhall extended Kansas City’s odds.

After the seventh-inning rally, Herrera let the game drift away. The Royals remain committing to avoiding panic. Their lead in the division allows them that luxury. But the brevity of the remaining regular season, the staging ground for their attempted return to the World Series, also presents a deadline.

“We’ve got 19 games left to clean it up before October,” Hosmer said.

The message is starting to filter its way through the room. On a clubhouse whiteboard, a three lines of black ink awaited the players, a group who had grown so accustomed to playing without batting practice these past two months:

“Early hitting.

“2 p.m.

“Tomorrow.”

Indians 8, Royals 3

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Royals fall for eighth time in 10 games with 8-3 loss to Cleveland."