Brad Keller leads way as Kansas City Royals win nail-biter at Tampa in Mondesi’s return
On the night the Kansas City Royals inserted shortstop Adalberto Mondesi back into their lineup, the pitching staff stole the spotlight on the road against the defending American League champions and the club that entered the day with the best record in the AL.
Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller set the tone by holding the Tampa Rays to one run, and the bullpen duo of Jake Brentz and Kyle Zimmer shut the door on a 2-1 win in front of an announced 4,946 at Tropicana Field in the opening game of a three-game set Tuesday night.
The win pushed the Royals (23-23) back to .500. They’ve now won five of their last six.
“Brad was as good as I’ve seen him,” Matheny said. “I just thought he had a really good rhythm. I thought his tempo, his execution of his fastball and slider was good, probably the best changeups we’ve seen from him. If he can continue to develop that pitch, it’s going to help everything else.”
The Royals snapped the Rays’ 11-game win streak and handed them their first loss since May 12. They also stopped the Rays (30-20) from matching a franchise record for longest win streak.
Carlos Santana’s solo home run and Salvador Perez’s sixth-inning RBI single provided the scoring for the Royals. Mondesi went 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles — one from each side of the plate.
Keller (4-4) turned in his best outing of the season. He pitched a season-high seven innings and allowed four hits — three infield singles — to go with seven strikeouts.
“My job as a starter is to try to get deep into ballgames,” Keller said. “So far, I feel like I haven’t been able to do that. Today was definitely a big step in the right direction. I want to definitely build on it.
“But I’m really happy to pitch into the seventh and complete the seventh. That way our bullpen only has to come in for two innings. They came in and dominated. That was fun to watch.”
The Rays loaded up their starting lineup with left-handed hitters or switch hitters who batted left-handed against the right-hander Keller. Just one right-handed hitter, first baseman Yandy Diaz, started.
Some of their top sluggers, including team home run leader Mike Zunino (11 homers) and last year’s playoff hero Randy Arozerena, began the night on the bench.
“It was kind of surprising to see a lineup like that especially because they’ve got some really good right-handed hitters,” Keller said. “It was kind of surprising to see. But it’s always a challenge. Every lineup you see is a challenge. I enjoy facing lefties. I enjoy facing righties too. All and all, just another game where you’ve got to go out there and make pitches and compete and get guys out. Lefty or righty, just another guy you’ve got to get out.”
Keller appears to have rediscovered his past form in recent weeks. In his previous five starts, he’d held opponents to three runs or fewer each time out.
The Royals needed a stellar outing from Keller because 41-year-old left-hander Rich Hill, the Rays’ starting pitcher, had a turn-back-the-clock-type performance. Hill struck out a career-high 13 and tossed a season-high eight innings.
Hill mowed down the Royals the first time through the lineup. He faced the minimum of nine batters through three innings, and he struck out five. Four of the five swung and missed at third strikes.
Hill struck out the side in the third on 10 pitches. He threw just one ball in the inning, the first pitch to Mondesi. Then followed with nine consecutive strikes.
The Rays scored the game’s first run on the legs of former Royals outfielder Brett Phillips in the third inning. Phillips hit an infield single on a ball hit sharply back to the pitcher’s mound on a hop. Keller gloved it, but it popped out of his glove towards the third base line as Phillips sprinted down the line.
Phillips stole second base, his seventh of the season, and advanced to third on a ground ball to ground ball to second base. Diaz’s two-out single up the middle gave the Rays a 1-0 lead.
That lead had an incredibly-short shelf life thanks to Santana’s 10th home run of the season, a 447-foot towering drive smashed to center field in the top of the fourth. Santana, who hit a walk-off home run in the Royals’ win on Sunday, jumped on a 3-1 fastball from Hill for the 250th homer of his career.
The Royals took the lead in the top of the sixth after Cam Gallagher’s bloop single to right field and Whit Merrifield’s single on the ground into right field set the table.
Then, with one out and an 0-2 count, Perez swatted a curveball that caught too much of the middle of the plate into left field for an RBI single that scored a hustling Gallagher from second with the go-ahead run.
Hill had struck Perez out in both of his earlier at-bats.
“We were not expecting him to throw the fastball like that because he’s kind of an off-speed guy,” Perez said. “He throws the changeup down and away, curveball and all that. He changed the plan, and he didn’t miss a lot of pitches today. He was good.”
The Royals stranded two men on base in the inning but grabbed the eventual winning run.
“He really hadn’t even fouled a breaking ball off yet and he gets a breaking ball that he can handle and ends up being able to drive in a run,” Matheny said. “A big run. Obviously, the deciding run for us. …
“It was kind of one of those grind nights. Unfortunately, we had a lot more strikeouts than what we’d normally like. But in those big situations, big players like Salvy come through just like he did.”
Brentz pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings without allowing a hit or a walk. Zimmer came in for the final two outs and picked up his second save of the season.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 8:59 PM.
