Danny Duffy exits early, Royals lose to Indians 5-1

The machinations of his departure unfolded around him, but with one out in the third inning of a 5-1 loss to Cleveland, Royals starter Danny Duffy appeared unaware of his impending exit.

After giving up a single to designated hitter Chris Johnson, Duffy held up his glove to receive a feed from shortstop Alcides Escobar. His back was to the dugout. When he turned around, he saw manager Ned Yost approaching. Duffy turned toward the Progressive Field bullpen, where the door opened for Jeremy Guthrie.

Duffy handed over the baseball and left the game. He had recorded only seven outs. The amount accounted for his second-briefest start of the season. Only a one-inning wreck against these Indians on May 6 went shorter.

“I definitely feel like I didn’t do anything close to my job today,” Duffy said. “This was very frustrating.”

He added, “The kind of effort that I put out was just not useful at all today.”

With only 17 games left in 2015, Duffy may have just two more chances to show he belongs in Kansas City’s playoff rotation. He has not presented a compelling case in the past month when pitted against Kris Medlen.

Just one night earlier, Medlen ground through 6  1/3 innings of scoreless baseball despite lacking feel for his changeup or curveball. As the Royals fell for the 12th time in their last 15 games, Duffy gave up four runs and could not finish the third.

Along the way, Duffy (7-8, 4.35 ERA) displayed all the tendencies that exhaust team officials about his performance. He allowed at-bats to become marathons. He gave up two-out strike hits. He gave up two-out hits. He never established a tempo, and he put his team in a first-inning hole.

“You can’t duplicate your mechanics, you can’t throw strikes,” Yost said. “He was kind of all over the place.”

Yost declined to say whether he favored Duffy or Medlen for the fourth spot in the October rotation. But the recent trends favor Medlen.

A once-joyous sprint to the American League Central crown has degenerated into a foot-dragging limp. Kansas City (85-60) trimmed its magic number to nine Tuesday. The tally stalled there a day later, pending the result of Minnesota’s game against Detroit. Meanwhile, Toronto resides only two games back in the race for home-field advantage.

“I cost our team a chance to advance in the standings,” Duffy said.

The offense looked listless against Cleveland starter Danny Salazar, save for a solo homer by Mike Moustakas in the seventh. Little relief arrives in Thursday’s series finale: The Royals will face reigning American League Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber.

“If you’re not swinging the bats well, starting pitching has got to go out and keep you in the game,” Yost said. “If you are swinging the bats well, then that picks up the pitchers if they don’t have a good start. Right now, we’re not doing either.”

In the first inning, Duffy continued a frustrating trend for both himself and his team. He became the sixth Royals starter in a row to require more than 20 pitches to finish the first inning.

In this case, Duffy threw 24. His ninth was a 93-mph fastball that arrived at the waist of Francisco Lindor, a candidate for American League Rookie of the Year. Catcher Salvador Perez had called for a slider, but Duffy wanted a fastball. Lindor powered a solo shot over the elevated wall in left field.

“I feel like my fastball is good enough to get anybody out, which is probably a good quality to have,” Duffy said. “But you can’t throw it right down the middle.”

The next inning was worse, both in terms of Duffy’s pitch count and the actual score. The 30-pitch frame netted Cleveland two runs, both of them scored with two outs. Guthrie was warming up when Duffy finished the frame, but the writing was on the wall.

Duffy threw a 3-2 fastball over the middle to outfielder Abraham Almonte. He singled. Next Duffy walked former Royal Mike Aviles. He could not capitalize on a 2-2 count. Instead, Aviles took first base after eight pitches. Jason Kipnis put a second Indians run on the board with a single up the middle.

Runners stood at the corners as Lindor came back to hit. Lindor whiffed on an 0-1 curveball, but the ball skidded past Perez for a wild pitch. Kipnis moved up 90 feet to second. Then he came around to score on Lindor’s two-run single, when Duffy grooved a belt-high fastball and second baseman Ben Zobrist could not smother Lindor’s grounder.

Already four runs had scored. The patterns looked ready to repeat in the third after a leadoff walk by first baseman Carlos Santana and a one-out hit by designated hitter Johnson. Yost removed Duffy from the game instead. He may soon remove him from contention for the playoff rotation.

“This one stings a little bit worse,” Duffy said. “Because I know I have more in the tank than I offered tonight.”

Indians 5, Royals 1

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a-flied out for Sands in the 3rd.

E: S.Perez (3). LOB: Kansas City 7, Cleveland 8. 2B: Zobrist (31), S.Perez (22), Aviles (10). HR: Moustakas (19), off Salazar; Lindor (9), off D.Duffy. RBIs: Moustakas (72), Kipnis (48), Lindor 4 (41). SB: C.Santana (11), A.Almonte (6). S: Kipnis.

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 3 (L.Cain 2, Rios); Cleveland 4 (A.Almonte, Lindor, C.Johnson, Kipnis). RISP: Kansas City 0 for 2; Cleveland 3 for 11.

Runners moved up: Kipnis. GIDP: Brantley.

DP: Kansas City 1 (Zobrist, A.Escobar, Hosmer).

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Inherited runners-scored: Guthrie 2-0. WP: D.Duffy.

Umpires: Home, Ben May; First, Chris Guccione; Second, Jeff Nelson; Third, Cory Blaser. Time: 2:47. Att: 11,103

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Danny Duffy exits early, Royals lose to Indians 5-1."