Joakim Soria stumbles as Royals lose their eighth straight game

Turns out home is where the heartache is, too.

Returning to Kauffman Stadium after a dreadful road trip that resulted in seven losses in as many games, the Royals hoped that returning home might reverse their fortunes.

And for most of Friday’s game against the Minnesota Twins, that appeared to be the case. Then came the eighth inning when a series of unfortunate events led to the Royals losing 6-4 and dropping their eighth straight game.

“It was tough,” Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield said. “But it’s baseball. You can’t take a knee in baseball, you’ve got to play all the outs and we just didn’t do enough to seal the deal. It sucks, but learn from it and move on.”

The Royals led 4-2 when Joakim Soria took the mound in the top of the eighth. He was looking for a 10th straight scoreless outing to start the season and to hand things over to closer Kelvin Herrera. Instead, Soria gave up four runs in two-thirds of an inning.

The Twins’ rally started when left fielder Eddie Rosario opened with an infield single that Merrifield couldn’t come up with.

“Unfortunately it didn’t go in my glove, but it’s definitely a play I should make,” Merrifield said.

Center fielder Byron Buxton, who is batting .138, drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Soria struck out second baseman Brian Dozier and got right fielder Max Kepler to hit a looping fly ball.

One problem: Royals right fielder Jorge Bonifacio dropped the ball, which loaded the bases.

Twins third baseman Miguel Sano fouled a pitch off the mask of home-plate umpire C.B. Bucknor, who stumbled and had to be held on his feet by Royals catcher Salvador Perez. Bucknor left the game, and crew chief Fieldin Culbreth took over.

Perez said he was told by first-base umpire Manny Gonzalez that Bucknor was working his first game since suffering a concussion.

“He was dizzy,” Perez said. “I saw his face and thought he wasn’t going to go anymore.”

A nearly 10-minute delay while Culbreth got his equipment didn’t appear to help Soria. Sano crushed the very next pitch from Soria, a hanging curveball, off the top of the wall in left-center field. Two runs scored and the game was tied 4-4.

Perez said that he wanted the ball to be in the dirt, but it was left up and Sano drilled it.

Joe Mauer followed with a double to right that brought home two more runs, and suddenly the Twins’ lead was 6-4.

Despite the loss, there were positive signs for the Royals.

Perez lined a two-run homer into the Royals’ bullpen in left field for a home run in the second inning.

An inning later, Merrifield was at third base with two outs when Eric Hosmer dumped a single into short center field and gave the Royals a 3-0 lead. It was a rare bit of timely hitting for the Royals, who entered the game batting .119 with runners in scoring position and two outs.

The Twins struck back in the fourth inning when Sano crushed a two-run homer off Royals starter Ian Kennedy.

Those were the only runs that Kennedy allowed, but he went just 5  1/3 innings and was pulled after allowing a single to Kepler. Peter Moylan relieved and struck out Sano.

Royals left-hander Matt Strahm was beckoned in his first high-leverage situation since returning to the majors on April 21. The Royals had to be heartened to see Strahm retire all four batters he faced and maintain the 3-2 lead.

It was Strahm’s third straight scoreless appearance as his ERA dropped to 15.75.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Royals’ Brandon Moss smoked a 2-2 pitch from Minnesota’s Buddy Boshers for his fourth home run of the season. It was a much-needed pick-me-up for Moss, who is still hitting just .143.

“I thought we swung the bats much, much better tonight,” Yost said. “Salvy just misses another home run. We hit probably four or five balls right on the nose right to their defenders. That’s encouraging.”

Encouraging, but ultimately not the victory the Royals needed to end their skid. They are 7-15 on the season and have lost all four meetings against the Twins.

“We’re grinding through this,” Kennedy said. “At least a lot of these guys haven’t been through some of this, going to the World Series one year, winning the World Series the next year and last year we went on a good run near the end of summer. Yeah, it’s tough. I was hoping that we’d get a little better start our first game back from a long, long road trip. We’ve still got a long home stand to play and hopefully we rattle quite a few wins out here.”

Twins 6, Royals 4

This story was originally published April 28, 2017 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Joakim Soria stumbles as Royals lose their eighth straight game."