A ‘confidence-building’ homer from rookie O’Hearn is brightest spot in Royals’ loss

The home run ball banged around the empty seats in section 147 at Tropicana Field, freshly struck by a left-handed-hitting rookie who had not reached base in his first 15 major-league at-bats against lefty pitchers.

Forgive him if he kept his gaze trained a few extra seconds on the smattering of ball-hocking fans in that left-center field spot on Tuesday night. After all, it was Ryan O’Hearn’s fifth homer in 14 games since making his debut on July 31. It was his first career hit against a lefty. And it was only the second homer All-Star Rays starter Blake Snell, the left-handed pitcher in question, had allowed to a lefty hitter in 67 career starts.

In the end, the fifth-inning homer made little difference. The Royals lost 4-1 to the Rays for their sixth defeat in eight games.

But it did provide further ammo for the Royals to keep auditioning O’Hearn, 25, as the season winds down to its final month.

“To get that knock today is just confidence-building,” said O’Hearn, who batted .271 with a .471 slugging percentage against left-handed pitchers at Class AAA Omaha this year. “Lets me know I can still hit left-handed pitching.”

O’Hearn wasn’t supposed to be in Tuesday’s starting lineup. Although his minor-league numbers against lefties have always been good — and often better than against right-handers, against whom he was batting .220 for the Storm Chasers — the Royals had limited O’Hearn’s exposure. Only one of his 12 starts had come against a southpaw.

But outfielder Jorge Bonifacio’s back was too stiff for him to take batting practice on Tuesday afternoon. Manager Ned Yost removed Bonifacio from the lineup, shuffled players around so much that Alcides Escobar wound up making his first career start at second base, and asked O’Hearn to prepare for a start at first base.

O’Hearn seemed unperturbed by the switch in routine. He popped out in foul territory in his first at-bat against Snell in the third inning — but he also saw seven pitches in the plate appearance.

“I pretty much saw everything he threw,” O’Hearn said. “Second at-bat, I just wanted to be on time for the fastball and he threw one I could hit.”

O’Hearn’s homer snapped the Rays’ streak of 27 scoreless innings pitched and the Royals’ streak of 20 innings without scoring.

Snell, who departed after six innings with an improved 2.07 ERA, allowed just four hits. He struck out 11 Royals batters, including two to end the first inning after Whit Merrifield led off the frame with a wall-banging double to left and advanced to third on a fly ball from Alex Gordon.

The Royals stranded eight on base and were just 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. As their season record dropped to 38-88, the Royals struck out 16 times for the second time during this three-loss skid.

“It’s some over-aggressiveness,” Yost said. “Some is trying to be too fine. Some is just you know over-swinging at times. It’s just a combination of things.”

One inning does in Sparkman: In his second start for the Royals, Glenn Sparkman made it four innings again. But unlike in his outing against the Blue Jays on Aug. 16, Sparkman struggled to keep his opponent off the base paths and elevated his pitch count to 88. He allowed three walks and yielded seven hits to the Rays, who scored three times against him.

Willy Adames opened scoring in the second inning, striking Sparkman’s 94 mph fastball so hard it hit the C-Ring of Tropicana Field’s catwalk and ricocheted toward the left-field wall.

The Rays padded their lead in the fourth. Catcher Michael Perez got the better of Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi on a ground ball and reached on a hit. He scored three batters later, when Joey Wendle whacked a ground ball down the first-base line that smacked into a Papa John’s Pizza advertisement in foul territory. By the time right fielder Rosell Herrera could pick the ball up behind the Rays’ bullpen mound, Perez and Tommy Pham, who drew a two-out walk, had already scored on Wendle’s two-run triple.

“No explanation, just need to be a little more efficient,” Sparkman said. “I definitely need to work on some things, like (stop) falling behind hitters, putting hitters in fastball counts.”

Sparkman retired the next batter but was replaced by reliever Burch Smith, who pitched the next three innings and one run to score on five hits as he struck out four batters.

Duffy expected to return: Yost won’t cast the rotation change in stone but the Royals expect left-hander Danny Duffy to be reinstated from the disabled list in time for Thursday’s series finale here. Duffy, who was placed on the disabled list because of a shoulder impingement last week, threw about 30 pitches in a bullpen session Monday afternoon at The Trop and was encouraged. The soreness in his shoulder has been curbed by an anti-inflammatory injection administered after his last start on Aug. 11.

“I’m at a point where I’m good and I feel like what percentage I’ve got in the tank right now is good enough to dominate,” Duffy, 29, said on Tuesday. “I’m gonna go out there and give it a go.”

Should he return as planned, Duffy will make his 26th start of the season. He’s only made 26 starts in a major-league season once before — in 2016, when he began the year in the bullpen.

But that’s not enough for Duffy. He had wanted to avoid the disabled list and log at least 200 innings for the first time in his career this year. Yet his inconsistency at the beginning of the season and the stiffness that crept into his throwing shoulder in late July all but nixed that plan.

“I go on that obligatory DL stint every year,” Duffy said. “I’m sick of it. We’ll get through this and then in the off-season I’m gonna bust my (butt) to get after it and give this team 200 innings. I’ve had eight chances to do it (since debuting in 2011).”

This story was originally published August 21, 2018 at 9:43 PM.