Royals lose second in a row to Rangers as Joey Gallo hits another big homer

By the time the rain clouds rolled in for the last third of Saturday’s game, it already seemed like the metaphorical clouds had been hanging over the Royals throughout this series in Texas.

Even in their series-opening win on Thursday, the Royals temporarily lost third baseman Hunter Dozier to injury. Friday night their most consistent pitcher went from lights-out to out of the game in less than an inning.

Saturday brought a short outing from starting pitcher Homer Bailey in a loss, and starting catcher Martin Maldonado came out of the game for “precautionary” reasons due to forearm tightness.

The Royals, who struck out 11 times, can still squeeze out a series split with a win in the series finale on Sunday. However, Saturday’s 6-2 loss to the Rangers in front of an announced 27,133 at Globe Life Park certainly wasn’t the fresh start the Royals or Bailey could’ve used to start June after a 10-18 record in May.

“There were some pitches there that I felt were made fairly well that were ground balls through the infield, but nonetheless ground balls,” Bailey said. “Obviously the one is the one to Gallo. I probably could’ve gotten inside a little bit more on that one.

“The other ones were some pretty decent pitches and just found holes.”

Bailey (4-6) has pitched well enough at times to look like a vital veteran presence in the rotation. At other times, he’s struggled enough to question if the Royals wouldn’t be better off with a youngster getting those starts.

Then again, the young starters who are viewed as close to major-league ready have battled their own inconsistencies in the big leagues as well as the minors.

For each of the four times Bailey has been chased from a start in less than five innings — not including the rain-shortened start last Monday in Chicago — he has had another start of six or seven solid innings.

“It seems like when stuff is not going your way it’s a pitch here a pitch there,” Maldonado said. “That’s the way I think it has been the last couple outings.”

On Saturday, Bailey allowed one hit and no runs through the first three innings. Then Rangers slugger Joey Gallo struck again and struck with a swift and violent swing on the first pitch meant to be up and inside.

Gallo’s smash went high and far to right-center for his 17th home run of the season. It gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Gallo left the game later with left oblique tightness.

Gallo’s sixth-inning grand slam off starting pitcher Danny Duffy on Friday night provided the margin of victory in the Rangers’ 6-2 win.

Gallo had just one passenger along for the ride on Saturday after Hunter Pence started the inning with a single. Bailey allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base in three of four innings, including two walks.

“Don’t make a mistake on (Gallo),” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s big, and he’s strong. We talk about elevating pitches. The pitch wasn’t elevated enough. We, at times, can pitch him up. It was at the belt, and it wasn’t in enough. He’s a strong guy. You make a mistake and he’s going to hit it out of the ballpark.”

After Gallo’s home run, Bailey gave up a single and a one-out double by Ronald Guzman that put runners on second and third.

Jeff Mathis’ sacrifice fly and Shin-Soo Choo’s RBI double — that slipped through the right side of the infield past the dive of first baseman Ryan O’Hearn — pushed the total to four runs in the inning before Bailey gave way for reliever Wily Peralta.

“We wanted to go up and in, and he threw it up and in,” Maldonado said of Bailey. “Other than that he hung a split to Guzman. I think he threw the ball good. Command-wise, I thought he was commanding the ball pretty good. Shoo could’ve been out probably if he hit that ball straight to O’Hearn.”

The Royals’ runs came courtesy of a Maldonado RBI double that one-hopped to the left-field wall in the fifth and a Cam Gallagher RBI double in the seventh.

Maldonado came out of the game in the sixth inning with forearm tightness after making a throw to second base from his knees in an unsuccessful attempt to catch a runner stealing. Yost had already planned to give Maldonado Sunday’s game off.

After the Rangers knocked Bailey out of the game, they added an unearned run in the sixth after Royals second baseman Nicky Lopez misplayed a potential double-play ball that could’ve ended the inning. Instead, it set up an Elvis Andrus sacrifice fly.

Nomar Mazara tacked on an insurance run in the eighth with an RBI single.

This story was originally published June 1, 2019 at 6:37 PM.

Lynn Worthy

The Kansas City Star

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Lynn Worthy covers the Kansas City Royals and Major League Baseball for The Star. A native of the Northeast, he’s covered high school, collegiate and professional sports for The Lowell Sun, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, Allentown Morning Call and The Salt Lake Tribune. He’s won awards for sports features and sports columns.