Home runs bite Jakob Junis again as Royals lose to Brewers

There was once a point early this season, before the Royals lost 19 games in April and well before they fell to 20 games outside of first place in the American League Central division, where starting pitcher Jakob Junis seemed he would be the brightest spot on the roster.

But the last two months, batters have cottoned onto him. After starting the season with a 2.02 ERA, Junis has pitched 69 2/3 innings and allowed 44 earned runs. More often than not, the runs have scored on bases-emptying blasts.

Just like they did on Tuesday, when the Royals lost 5-1 to the Brewers at Miller Park. Junis allowed five runs to score via home runs hit by Christian Yelich, Jesus Aguilar and Ryan Braun. He's allowed a majors-leading 22 home runs this year, 12 of them in five June starts.

"I’m giving up a lot of runs on home runs," said Junis, who now has a 5-9 record and 4.67 ERA. "If I can keep it in the yard, I would have a lot better chance at keeping some runs off the board. But just a couple pitches I’m leaving over the plate are getting handled."

Junis struck out five of the first 10 batters he faced and seven Brewers overall. But he labored from the second inning on. In the end, he allowed seven hits, three of which traveled a combined 1,185 feet and sent Bernie the Brewer down his left-field slide for each.

Junis was so bitten by the homer that when Hernan Perez, a 27-year-old utility player who has hit 63 home runs in his entire professional career, lofted a ball to center field, Junis stepped back off the mound to watch the trajectory. The fly ball died about 50 feet shy of the fence, yet the moment stood as a representation of the biggest challenge Junis has faced this year.

He has strikeout stuff and plays in the zone more often than not. Entering Tuesday’s start, he ranked 14th among qualified starters with 51.5 percent of his pitches registering inside the strike zone. Among those in that group, which is led by the Braves’ Brandon McCarthy (54.9 percent), were the Nationals’ Max Scherzer and the Astros’ Justin Verlander. Each has thrown 52.8 percent strikes and combined have struck out 297 batters.

But Junis, 25, is in the midst of his first full season as a major-league starter. As great as his slider is when it’s effective, it still needs work.

“I think the thing you learn from is you have to execute pitches,” manager Ned Yost said.

That lesson will be learned with time.

And as the Royals, who dropped to 24-55, continue this rebuilding season, they will have plenty of that to go around.

"My stuff hasn’t been consistent but tonight I felt a lot better and I still gave up five runs," Junis said. "It’s just something you’ve got to work towards and keep getting better and hopefully next time I have my slider again and a little bit better fastball control and then we can keep the runs off the board and give our team a chance to win."

Offense continues struggles: Brewers rookie pitcher Freddy Peralta, in his fourth career start, held the Royals to one hit. Adalberto Mondesi, who put the Royals on the board with a two-out solo homer in the eighth, hit a leadoff double in the third to break up Peralta's no-hit bid.

Peralta, the Brewers' ninth-ranked prospect who's allowed just four earned runs in 22 2/3 innings, struck out 10 batters in his rampage through the Royals' lineup.

"He had a lot of deception," Yost said. "It is hard to explain. He’s got a high spin rate and the ball just kind of jumps on you even though it’s 92 mph. Really good curveballs. Commanded it better than I thought he would."

The Royals have lost 18 of their last 21 games. In June, they've hit a majors-worst .188 (139 for 741) and scored just 48 runs in 23 games.

"We’re all frustrated. I’ve never seen anything like it," Yost said. "I’ve never seen an offensive drought like we’ve had all month long. It’s pretty puzzling. There’s no answer for it."

This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 10:02 PM.