Daniel Lynch’s solid start wasn’t enough as Kansas City Royals lose in Toronto
The Kansas City Royals couldn’t beat the entire country of Canada.
The Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night played their first game at their home ballpark in 670 days after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to play home games in Florida and Buffalo, New York. The pregame ceremonies included a video message from fans to the players welcoming them back “home.”
The Royals were the opponent on the first game back on Canadian soil, and they weren’t able to overcome the emotion of the welcome back celebration.
Daniel Lynch tossed the ninth quality start in the last 10 games, but the Royals still came up short in a 6-4 loss to the Blue Jays in front of a restricted capacity crowd of 13,446 in the Rogers Centre.
“Before the game, it was pretty special to see the fans in this city get a team back,” Lynch said. “I think a lot of people rely on sports so much as kind of rock in their life or something to get away. To not have that (and) to see the city get a team back was pretty special.”
Salvador Perez hit his 26th homer of the season to move within one of matching his career high with another day remaining in July. Whit Merrifield had an infield single and two stolen bases.
Including Perez’s homer, the top seven hitters in the Royals lineup combined for three hits. Meanwhile, Nicky Lopez went 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI, and Jarrod Dyson went 2 for 4 with a run scored.
Lopez described it as “awesome” being part of the first MLB game in Canada in more than a year and a half.
“Coming over from the states, it was a little bit different,” Lopez said. “It was a great atmosphere. We would have liked to pull of a W, but a great atmosphere. You’ve got to tip the cap to everyone who made it possible. To the people from the Royals organization who made it possible to be the first team to be up here and obviously everyone in Canada and Toronto.”
After Lynch threw a scoreless first inning, Teoscar Hernández gave the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead when he pounced on a first-pitch fastball for a solo home run.
Later in the inning following a two-out walk to No. 9 hitter Alejandro Kirk, Lynch gave up an RBI double to George Springer that made the score 2-0.
In the third inning, the Blue Jays again scored with two outs. Bo Bichette stole second base to put himself in scoring position, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s single to left field drove in Bichette with the third run of the game.
“He really did from that point on, I thought, make even better pitches,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “But from the beginning I thought he had everything working. … I thought he did a nice job of establishing the inside part of the plate to a full right-handed lineup.
“Another, in my opinion, just good outing for Daniel. To see him get through that sixth was impressive. He kept us in that game.”
Lynch, who tossed eight scoreless in his previous start, allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks on Friday. He gave up a home run and the other two runs each came with two outs in their respective innings.
Despite those early hiccups, Lynch didn’t allow a run after the third inning and turned in the ninth quality start by a Royals pitcher in the past 10 games.
Lynch retired the last seven batters he faced. He went into the sixth inning having already thrown 95 pitches, and he got through the final inning on 12 pitches.
“I felt like that was one of those outings where you just had to really grind through it,” Lynch said. “I felt like I made a lot of good pitches that were maybe just a little bit off and just barely balls. So I felt good about the way I threw the ball. … I felt like those last three innings I really kind of settled in.”
The Royals pulled to within a run, 3-2, thanks to a run in the fifth on Lopez’s two-run RBI triple to right-center field and Perez’s solo homer with one out in the sixth inning.
Relief pitcher Domingo Tapia, who made just his third appearance of the season for the Royals, allowed three runs in the seventh inning.
The Blue Jays loaded the bases without an out on a single, a double and a walk. Tapia got a ground ball double play and traded two outs for one run as the runner from third scored to make it a two-run advantage 4-2.
With two outs, Bichette hit a 2-1 fastball from Tapia for a two-run homer to give the Blue Jays a 6-2 lead.
“He’s going to have to get to the point where he trusts some of his other pitches,” Matheny said of Tapia. “That was a lot of fastballs in a row, and yeah it’s upper 90s with a lot of movement. But we saw with the last hitter where he really started to trust his slider and the next thing you know he gets a strikeout. It’s something that he’s working on, and he’s going to have to continue working on. It will make that sinker even that much better.”
The Royals added a run on a heads-up baserunning play by Lopez to score from first on an infield single and a throwing error in the eighth.
Hunter Dozier singled, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout in the ninth inning to give the Royals their fourth run.
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 9:29 PM.
