ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. | The worst thing about this lost weekend for the Royals at Tropicana Field might be that it still isn’t over.
It didn’t end with Sunday’s 9-2 knockout by the Tampa Bay Rays. Nope, this is a wraparound series. The Royals must make one more run through the gauntlet before heading home.
Simply put, the Royals are at low ebb right now. Not much is going right. So it only makes it worse that, in the Rays, they’re facing a young, hungry collection that just happens to possess baseball’s best record.
It’s been a mismatch.
Sunday brought more of the same. The Royals supplied Luke Hochevar with a 2-0 lead against James Shields and, really, that only seemed to get the Rays annoyed.
Tampa Bay scored once in the second inning before hammering Hochevar in four-run third inning — and all four scored with two outs. Throw in two more in the fourth and the damage to Hochevar, 5-7, amounted to seven runs in four innings.
The Rays weren’t done. Four more hits in the sixth against Joel Peralta produced two more runs. Tampa Bay has now won seven in a row and 11 of its last 12 in improving to 55-32.
Evan Longoria and Gabe Gross hit homers in pacing Tampa Bay’s balanced 13-hit attack. B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena and Longoria — the 3-4-5 hitters — each drove in two runs.
Shields, 7-5, recovered nicely from an early wobble and limited the Royals to two runs and four hits in seven innings. He struck out eight and walked one in a 93-pitch performance before departing. Gary Glover and Trever Miller closed out the victory. The Royals lost for the fifth time in six games and fell to 39-50. They have been outscored 23-4 in three losses to Tampa Bay. Hochevar appeared distracted at times in his four innings. He failed to cover first base promptly on a potential double-play grounder to first in the second inning, and he allowed Willy Aybar to steal third without a throw in the third inning.
The Royals stung Shields for two two-outs runs in the second after Ross Gload beat out a single to deep short. John Buck followed with a double to deep left before Esteban German grounded a two-run single up the middle.
Tampa Bay stormed back immediately.
Pena opened the second by opting to beat an infield overshift by bunting for a single. Hochevar then hit Longoria before Aybar loaded the bases by grounding a single into right.
Hochevar induced a possible double-lay grounder from Ben Zobrist but failed to cover first in time after Gload threw to second for the force. Pena scored, but the Rays repaid Hochevar’s mistake with one of their own.
Gross hit a grounder to Gload at first; Gload tagged the base, then threw home and trapped Longoria, who made a late break from third. The Royals trapped Longoria in a rundown for the final out.
The reprieve was brief.
Tampa Bay took the lead on Pena’s two-run double in the third. Longoria atoned for his base-running mistake by blasting a two-run homer deep into the left-field seats. All four runs scored with two outs.
The Rays extended their lead to 7-2 in the fourth inning when Upton pulled a two-run double past first. It also came with two outs. Hochevar finished the inning before exiting.
Join the discussion
Share your observations and experiences about news. Lively, open debate is the goal, but please refrain from personal attacks or comments that are racist, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate. If you see an inappropriate comment, please click the "Report as violation" link to notify a KansasCity.com editor. Thanks for your feedback.