Kansas City Royals lose 11th in a row as Daniel Lynch turns in another short outing
The Kansas City Royals got a very encouraging outing out of a left-handed starter who’d experienced some growing pains earlier this spring, but it wasn’t the pitcher who started the game.
The Detroit Tigers chased Royals starter Daniel Lynch before the end of the third inning, and Kris Bubic turned in another sparkling performance in long relief with five scoreless innings that included six strikeouts.
But the Royals offense sputtered in key moments throughout the day in a 4-3 loss to the Tigers on Thursday afternoon in front of an announced 7,369 at Comerica Park. The Royals’ losing streak extended to 11 consecutive games, and they’ve now been swept in three consecutive series by divisional opponents.
The Royals (16-20) will continue their road trip with a doubleheader on Friday against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. The White Sox swept three games from the Royals last week in Kansas City.
The Royals left 11 men on base and went 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position on Thursday
“Right now we’re having trouble stringing things together,” Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi said. “Baseball is a weird game. It only takes a blooper to fall for a guy, then all of a sudden they’re hot. Then it’s contagious. The next thing you know, we’re putting up 10 runs a game.
“We’re just kind of trying to be positive, not waiting it out until we get going but trying to find things to be positive about. It’s obviously super-easy to be negative right now.”
Benintendi went 3 for 5, while shortstop Nicky Lopez went 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored in the loss.
The Royals scored two runs in the ninth inning to pull within a run, and they had the tying run on first base in the form of Jarrod Dyson as pinch-runner for Salvador Perez (2 for 5, RBI). Benintendi struck out swinging to end the game.
“We had a chance for damage in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth for big runs,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We needed a big hit. That’s obviously one of the components of winning baseball, the timely hitting. We put some pressure on. We had hits. We had traffic. It was just a matter of getting the big one that was able to put crooked numbers up.”
Lynch (0-2) allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. All four of the runs he allowed came in the second inning when eight men came to the plate against Lynch.
Lynch has made three starts since the Royals called him up and moved Jakob Junis into the bullpen. Lynch has allowed 15 runs (14 earned runs) on 18 hits and five walks in eight innings.
Lynch threw 11 first-inning pitches — eight for strikes — and he threw eight fastballs as he retired the side in order.
The second inning did not go nearly as smoothly for Lynch. He gave up four runs on five hits (four singles) and a sacrifice fly.
“I felt like I was getting ahead of them, I just wasn’t really putting them away with two strikes,” Lynch said of the second. “I made some pretty good pitches that they just put good swings on. It kind of got away where they had some hits, but then I felt like I made some good pitches that just didn’t get the result that I wanted.”
Miguel Cabrera’s well-placed bloop single up the fight-field line started the second inning for the Tigers.
After a strikeout of Niko Goodrum, the next three batters hit the ball hard. Eric Haase’s double came off the bat at 107.6 mph, and Royals right fielder Jorge Soler either misread or didn’t get a good jump on the ball off the bat.
Willi Castro hit a 2-0 fastball down the first-base line on a hop for an RBI single that deflected off the glove of Royals first baseman Carlos Santana.
JaCoby Jones singled to right field and Soler bobbled the ball which allowed Jones to advance to second base as the second run of the inning scored. Akil Baddoo’s sacrifice fly tacked on a third run and allowed Jones to move up to third. Jones scored the fourth run on Robbie Grossman’s two-out single up the middle.
“Some pretty good borderline pitches, but he wasn’t getting much chase,” Matheny said of Lynch. “He was throwing some tough pitches in tough counts. Overall, I thought his stuff looked good. He just couldn’t get them in the advantage counts to be able to finish them off. He wasn’t getting anything out of the zone as far as any bites, but he looked sharp.”
Lynch nearly got through the third inning, but a replay review overturned what had initially been called the third out on a play at first base. Tyler Zuber struck out the final batter of the third inning with two men on base, and Bubic kept the Tigers off the board the rest of the way.
This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 3:33 PM.
