Despite homers from Perez and Taylor, Kansas City Royals lose finale in Seattle
The Kansas City Royals seemed to overcome a little bit of everything during their 10-game road trip, including injuries, deficits and momentary miscues. But the mounting injuries among key members of their bullpen seemed to catch up with them on Sunday in Seattle.
Salvador Perez and Michael A. Taylor hit solo home runs to tie the score in consecutive innings as Perez continued one of the most torrid offensive stretches in club history, but the Seattle Mariners hit two home runs of their own, including a two-run blast by Kyle Seager in the seventh that ended up being the difference in the Royals’ 4-3 loss in front of an announced 20,044 at T-Mobile Park.
The loss kept the Royals (59-71) from a four-game sweep. Instead they took three of four and finished the road trip 7-3.
“That was a very, very well-played series, a very well-played road trip,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I’m real proud of how these guys came in and competed. We’d already taken three games and they went after this fourth one. You love to see that tenacity. ... That urgency. That excitement. That energy. Everything we were hoping to see on a day like this, they didn’t disappoint.”
Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and three walks in six innings. He struck out five in a no decision.
The lone earned run came on a home run on a fastball that leaked back over the middle of the plate with two outs in the the bottom of his last inning.
“One of the best sliders I ever caught, the one he had today was 88, 89, down and in on the lefties,” Perez said of Singer. “He threw pretty good. ... He used the changeup a lot today, two-seamer, four-seam. Slider was amazing.”
Mariners starting pitcher Marco Gonzales held the Royals scoreless through the first five innings despite batters having swung and missed just five times in his first 74 pitches. He managed to keep Royals hitters from hard contact.
Singer caught a bad break in the first when right fielder Edward Olivares misplayed a fly ball with two outs that allowed Kyle Seager to advance to second base and move into scoring position on a play that should’ve ended the inning.
The next batter, Ty France, came into the day batting .315 with runners in scoring position and .344 overall in 39 games since the All-Star Break, the best in the American League. France singled on a grounder up the middle to drive in the game’s first run.
“I think you just limit the damage as much as you can,” Singer said of his approach in that spot. “I think there was two outs there. You’ve got to control what you can control at that point. I got a ground ball there that just snuck by Nicky. He was real close to it. I think the only thing you can do is try to limit the damage.”
That unearned run held as the game’s only scoring until Perez’s sixth-inning homer that tied the score 1-1.
Mariners rookie outfielder Jarred Kelenic hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning but Taylor responded with one out in the top of the seventh with his 11th homer of the season, a 413-foot blast to left field to tie the score 2-2.
With Jake Brentz, Greg Holland and Richard Lovelady on the injured list — Lovelady went on the IL prior to Sunday’s game — the Royals turned to reliever Tyler Zuber, recalled from Triple-A prior to the game, in the seventh inning.
Zuber gave up Seager’s two-run homer with two outs to put the Mariners ahead 4-2.
“He had two outs and a rollover ball on the infield and really almost got out of the inning clean,” Matheny said. “... He made some good pitches, almost got out of it. Unfortunately, the home run got him.”
Perez’s RBI single off the top of the right-field wall in the eighth scored Nicky Lopez, who registered his third consecutive three-hit game. That made it a one-run game, but the Royals couldn’t push another run across.
After the game, Perez lamented not getting to second base and being in scoring position because the next batter, Andrew Benintendi, singled.
The Royals will not play on Monday, and they’ll start a series against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium.
This story was originally published August 29, 2021 at 6:22 PM.
