Royals bullpen implodes in 7-6 loss to Twins: ‘They’re all struggling right now’
The bullpen endured more change than any other piece of the Royals’ roster, with more than half the names turning over since the conclusion of last season.
New arms.
Same old results.
The back end of the bullpen blew a late lead for the second consecutive day, allowing the Twins to escape Kauffman Stadium with a 7-6 victory Wednesday afternoon.
“It sure feels like that — that they’re all struggling right now,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, adding, “We made some mistakes. Again, we’re not catching a whole lot of breaks, either. That’s the way it goes.”
A much-maligned unit from 2018 — the worst in the American League — was reformatted in spring training. As Yost tinkers with the new recipe, he’s been unable to find the right mix.
And he tried a lot of them Wednesday.
Offered a three-run lead in the sixth, the Royals churned through Scott Barlow, Tim Hill, Kevin McCarthy, Jake Diekman and Wily Peralta. Only McCarthy filtered a clean outing, and he faced one hitter.
Max Kepler delivered a two-out, two-run single off Diekman, essentially a blooper serving as the game-tying blow in the eighth. Yost thought Kepler broke his bat on the hit. Eddie Rosario sent the game-winning single into right field off Peralta in the ninth. The combination spoiled Homer Bailey’s opportunity to earn a victory in his first start with the Royals.
A day earlier, Ian Kennedy was unable to protect a one-run lead in the ninth, and the Twins won 5-4 in extras.
What could have been a promising season-opening homestand instead finished with the Royals holding a 2-3 record in the first week. The Royals will travel north for their first road series in Detroit on Thursday.
“Whenever you’re at home and you get a come from behind loss like that, it’s always frustrating,” Royals left fielder Alex Gordon said. “But it’s early on, so you have to keep running them out there and giving them chances, and hopefully it turns around.”
For a moment, Gordon owned the deciding blast, a three-run homer as part of a fifth-inning rally that turned a two-run deficit into a 6-3 lead. The Royals scored all five runs with two outs. They trailed 3-2 when Gordon hit a ball just beyond the center field fence. His first home run of the year traveled 411 feet.
He had only one hit in 11 at-bats over the initial four games. A bit of luck got him going. He rolled a ball through the infield in the first inning, scoring Adalberto Mondesi after Mondesi hit an opposite-field triple, his third of the year.
But Gordon left less doubt on the other. On an afternoon in which the wind aided the hitters, Gordon skied a ball to dead center. Kepler tracked it to the wall, but it sailed over his head. The Royals sent 10 runners to the plate in a five-run fifth, an inning stretched against starter Kyle Gibson after Mondesi beat out a ground ball to the second baseman.
“Always hitting a home run at Kauffman Stadium is nice,” Gordon said, referring to the spacious outfield. “When I hit it to center, I was like, ‘Crap,’ but the wind picked up a little bit and blew it out.”
It was for naught. Barlow was charged with one run in the sixth, Diekman with two in the eighth and Peralta with one in the ninth.
Bailey began the string with five innings. He showed some swing-and-miss stuff. He struck out eight while mixing four pitches — a fastball, splitter, curveball and slider — but needed 99 pitches to navigate the five innings.
The Royals designated relief pitcher Chris Ellis for assignment Wednesday to accommodate Bailey’s place on the roster. Ellis, a Rule 5 pick, will be placed on waivers and then returned to the Cardinals if he goes unclaimed.
“I think there’s a lot of room for growth,” Bailey assessed his outing. “I still wasn’t efficient, even though we were going after guys.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2019 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Royals bullpen implodes in 7-6 loss to Twins: ‘They’re all struggling right now’."