Lucas Duda, Ian Kennedy come through in Royals' 1-0 win over Indians
Royals catcher Drew Butera stood underneath a heat lamp in the visiting dugout at Progressive Field on Saturday afternoon, his arms extended toward the ceiling to absorb the warmth. He had pulled off his batting gloves and was holding them between his fingers, as though to warm them up, too.
“I’ll try anything,” he said.
The average temperature across the Royals' first five games of the season was 41 degrees. The game-time temperature here on Saturday for their sixth game of the season ended up being 34 degrees.
So Butera and the Royals needed to thaw out.
Not only because of the cold, but also because in the week since pitcher Ian Kennedy had made his first start of the year, the Royals only scored four runs in three games. With a pair of games postponed because of snow and two off days, there had been no time for the Royals to get into any kind of rhythm.
The thawing had to come now, in the middle game of the first series of the season they will be able to complete — the weather on Sunday, despite being chilly, should permit it.
The thawing had to be efficient.
"It felt like again runs were going to be hard to come by," manager Ned Yost said.
They were. But it was the Royals who got the only run of the game: They beat the Indians 1-0.
The de-icing wasn’t storybook economical. The Royals stranded four runners. They didn't take advantage of Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon stealing bases in the fifth inning. Instead, Butera fell victim to a strike called just off the right corner of the zone by home-plate umpire Will Little.
But what the Royals did, especially when held to three hits over Indians starter Trevor Bauer's eight innings, was enough.
With a swing on Bauer’s first pitch of the seventh inning, Lucas Duda cranked the Royals’ hardest-hit ball of the game 408 feet to right field for a home run. It was all the Royals needed to enter the win column for just the second time this season. The Royals improved to 2-4.
In getting there, the Royals got another stellar performance from Kennedy, who continued a string of 11 scoreless innings dating to last Saturday, when he allowed one run in the first inning and blanked the White Sox the rest of the way in what became a no-decision.
Kennedy struck out eight Indians on Saturday, scattered four hits and located 75 of his 101 pitches for strikes over six innings.
"The pitching on both sides was tremendous," Yost said. "Bauer was really sharp, spotting his fastball. It seemed like he could throw that breaking ball for strikes any time he wanted to. But Ian matched him. Threw good breaking balls, spotted his fastball."
Kennedy received backup from utility player Ryan Goins, who at second base was perfectly positioned to snag a line drive off the bat of Rajai Davis and flip the ball with his glove to first baseman Cheslor Cuthbert for an out.
And Kennedy helped himself, too, side-stepping danger in the sixth inning when Little ruled that Kennedy had more or less canceled a timeout by stepping back onto the rubber. It gave Francisco Lindor, who had ripped a double to center field to lead off the sixth inning, room to steal third base. Kennedy shut down the threat there, though. He struck out Jason Kipnis and Jose Ramirez and got a fly-ball out to close the book on his outing.
"Going through that part of the lineup, Ramirez is an All-Star, tough out no matter if he’s struggling or not," Kennedy said. "That’s what made it more aggravating. You’re facing him, now the guy’s at third because of something like that. It was something that you had to like just hone in and focus on the next couple pitches."
The Royals bullpen, which started the season on a sour note by coughing up 13 runs in the first three games, also stymied the Indians. Kelvin Herrera locked up his second save with a perfect ninth inning. Blaine Boyer worked around a two-out single and walk, stranding both runners, while Justin Grimm faced just three batters after Butera caught Lindor attempting to steal second base in the eighth inning.
The play was redeeming for Butera, who an inning earlier had allowed Davis to reach third base when he botched a throw trying to catch Davis stealing second base off Boyer.
"It’s tough," Butera said referring to the conditions of the game. "There’s a combination of things today. The cold weather, the shadows, the wind. It’s no excuse. It’s that same way for everybody."
This story was originally published April 7, 2018 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Lucas Duda, Ian Kennedy come through in Royals' 1-0 win over Indians."