Royals get solid pitching from Harvey, Hernandez, but Chisox hand KC 6th straight loss
The Kansas City Royals got a brief-but-positive outing from Matt Harvey and another solid relief performance from rookie right-hander Carlos Hernandez before he left the game after being hit by a line drive. Recently acquired outfielder Edward Olivares hit his first home run since coming over from the San Diego Padres in the Trevor Rosenthall trade.
However, those bright spots didn’t outshine the Chicago White Sox putting the finishing touches on a four-game series sweep with an 8-2 win at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The AL Central Division-leading White Sox won nine of ten games in the season series with the Royals, including all seven games in Kansas City.
The Royals (14-27) have now lost six consecutive games. They’ll begin a four-game series at the Cleveland Indians on Monday.
Olivares’ seventh-inning two-run home run scored the first runs of the day for the Royals. Bubba Starling had two hits and a run scored for the Royals. Adalberto Mondesi doubled in the loss.
After he made it through two scoreless innings, Harvey allowed a double and a one-out RBI single through a drawn-in infield in the third inning before he exited the game. He struck out two and allowed one run on four hits in 2 1/3 innings.
“They didn’t really tell me what the plan was, but I’m assuming it was as the opener and to go out there and work on what I did in my last outing out of the pen and try to continue that, which I felt like I did pretty well,” Harvey said.
After Harvey threw 2/3 innings in relief on Thursday, Royals manager Mike Matheny said on Saturday that he intended Harvey to pitch more as an “opener” as opposed to a traditional starter expected to give length.
In each of his first two starts, Harvey pitched two scoreless before he gave up runs in the third inning. However in his third start last week against the Indians, he gave up three first-inning runs and two more in the second before he exited the game.
“I think the biggest thing was just to go out and not necessarily concentrate on five, six different mechanical things but just to think about one specific thing,” Harvey said. “For me, that was just to stay back over the rubber and let my body and arm catch up. I’ve been watching a lot of video, and I wasn’t doing a very good job of that.
“For me today, it was just really staying back and gathering myself a little bit more and letting the arm work and trying to execute pitches as good as I could.”
Harvey did not have an organized spring training camp in February and March nor in July when teams reconvened for spring training 2.0. He had not pitched in a big-league game in more than a year when the Royals signed him.
Tyler Zuber pitched 2/3 innings in relief before he handed it over to right-hander Hernandez, who pitched at Low-A Lexington last season. Hernandez impressed in his MLB debut by throwing 3 2/3 scoreless in relief of Harvey on Tuesday night against the Cleveland Indians.
On Sunday, Hernandez allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings before a comebacker up the middle off the bat of Danny Mendick hit him at a speed of 99 mph and forced Hernandez to leave the game.
“I’m happy with what I did today,” Hernandez said. “I was definitely ready for more. I wanted to keep going. The situation went down with me getting hit and had to stop.”
Hernandez, who dropped his glove and went down on the infield grass at end of the play, walked off the field with head athletic trainer Nick Kenney with two men on and two outs in the sixth inning.
The Royals later announced he’d sustained a stomach contusion. Hernandez said he got the wind knocked out of him and was ready to keep going, but he respected the decision made by Matheny.
“I like everything I’m seeing,” Matheny said of Hernandez. “I thought it was even a better changeup today than maybe the last time out. He got a couple good swings and misses. He got a punch-out on the changeup. Good life. Good rhythm. A couple times he got too quick and Cal (Eldred) had to go out and remind him he was almost not even getting his legs under himself. He made a real nice adjustment.”
After the White Sox pushed one run across against Harvey and another against Hernandez, they created breathing room with Edwin Encarnacion’s three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning. They added three more runs in the eighth.
The White Sox (26-15) entered the day leading the AL with 70 home runs, a franchise record through 40 games.
Josh Staumont (1/3 innings) and Chance Adams (1 1/3 innings) gave up three runs apiece in relief for the Royals.
This story was originally published September 6, 2020 at 4:57 PM.
