Adalberto Mondesi’s errors cost the Royals, Jakob Junis in loss to Yankees

The game was almost a test.

It was a way for Royals manager Ned Yost to gauge how his young players would respond in a hostile environment in the Bronx. Not a make-or-break deal, he said Thursday at Yankee Stadium. But an interesting deal nonetheless. It was his first time coming here since the days of Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer. He was curious.

“It’ll be interesting to see how these guys do,” Yost said.

Few did all that well as the Royals began a four-game series against the now 65-win Yankees with a 7-2 loss hours later.

Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, who was making his 12th start at shortstop this season, made two errors that cost Jakob Junis four runs. Junis, the Royals starting pitcher, was roughed up for seven runs in the game, only three of them earned. A sellout crowd of 46,965 rained down boos when Junis’ errant pitch drilled Yankees designated hitter Aaron Judge in the right wrist in the first inning. Judge departed three innings later for an MRI at New York Presbyterian.

Last time Junis faced these Yankees, he held them to two earned runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He won his fifth game of the season that night, a few starts before his season plunged into a slump so deep he allowed 14 home runs in 40 1/3 innings that spanned seven outings.

This time, Yost went to rookie side-armer Tim Hill to retire Greg Bird in the fifth inning — and Hill handled the job well, fooling the left-handed hitter into whiffing at a fastball away for a strikeout that stranded two runners.

“I didn’t feel like Jake was exceptionally sharp,” Yost said. “I felt like he was out there competing. I felt like his stuff was good, but I looked at the ball-strike ratio (100-61) wasn’t great. You get to 98 pitches through 4 2/3 innings and you’re generally not sharp.”

Junis pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed nine hits. One was an infield hit from Judge, who jammed a shot to the left of the mound that both Junis and first baseman Lucas Duda lunged after. Even after the Yankees loaded the bases, however, Judge didn’t score. Junis got Gleyber Torres to ground a ball to Mondesi for an inning-ending double play.

“The home run killed me big time,” said Junis of the 25th homer he has allowed this season. “But all in all, kind of built off that last one, getting ground balls when I needed it.”

It was the only jam Junis could maneuver with ease. With two outs and one runner on base, Mondesi charged in from the second base side to field a ball scorched under Junis’ glove by Neil Walker. But Mondesi’s throw from the infield grass was off target, forcing Duda to stretch and miss the ball. One pitch later, Didi Gregorius jumped on a first-pitch change-up and drilled a three-run homer to right field to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead.

Mondesi stayed too far back and booted a ground ball on what could have been an inning-ending play in the first. Instead, Torres reached on a fielder’s choice and Gregorius scored the second run of the frame as the ball skipped up Mondesi’s glove hand and into his belly.

“I knew what I needed to do,” Mondesi said. “I just didn’t do it.

“Right now those things happen. I just need to keep my head up and keep playing baseball.”

The Royals, who fell to 31-71, did not recover. Mike Moustakas struck out with the bases loaded in the third inning. The Royals left eight on base, even as outfielder Brian Goodwin logged his fourth and fifth hits since becoming a Royal this week.

The Royals’ only runs scored via a Salvador Perez homer in the sixth that scored Moustakas, who had hit a ground-rule double ahead of Perez. Alex Gordon tried to score from second base with two outs in the ninth on Whit Merrifield’s single. But Gordon appeared to run through a stop sign and was thrown out to end the game.

“It’s a tough one to evaluate now when there’s a lot of things going on,” Junis said. “Obviously gave up a lot of runs and got the loss, so didn’t help the team out there.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 9:25 PM.