Lynch’s slow start too much for Kansas City Royals to overcome in loss to Indians
Kansas City Royals rookie pitcher Daniel Lynch gave up three first-inning runs, and his club never mounted the rally to overcome that deficit on the road against a division rival.
The Royals fell 4-1 to the Cleveland Indians in the third game of a four-game set in front of an announced 23,341 at Progressive Field on Tuesday night in Cleveland.
Lynch pitched six innings and allowed four runs, but those three early ones proved critical. The left-hander gave up one home run, walked three and struck out five. Two of the walks and two of the hits against Lynch came in the first inning.
“As frustrating as it is just to not really set yourself up to put us in a position to get ahead, as frustrating as that is I can take away the fact that I know that I can battle,” Lynch said. “I know that I didn’t have much tonight, and I felt like I at least did a good job to get through six innings. But as a competitor, you don’t want to get through six innings. You want to pitch well for six innings or seven innings.”
In his 14 major-league starts, Lynch has allowed 19 of his 42 runs (45%) in the first inning, and more than half of his runs in the first two innings (26 of his 42, 62%).
Lynch said he thinks the early-inning woes are pretty common among most pitchers, but he hopes to be the exception to that trend.
“It’s something that I really want to improve on,” Lynch said. “It’s something that I’m aware of. Like I said, I think if you look at starting pitchers across the board, it’s probably our worst inning. But I’m going to work hard to make that my best inning because I think it sets a tone for the rest of the game.”
Royals slugger Hunter Dozier homered for the second time in two days (three games), and Whit Merrifield collected two hits. Nicky Lopez extended his on-base streak to 31 consecutive games with a third-inning double.
Royals reliever Dylan Coleman made his major-league debut in the seventh inning. A native of Potosi, Missouri, Coleman came to the Royals last fall as the player to be named from the San Diego Padres in last summer’s Trevor Rosenthal trade.
Indians starting pitcher Cal Quantrill, son of former major-league pitcher Paul Quantrill, held the Royals to one run in 6 2/3 innings.
The Indians turned back-to-back walks followed by a single to start the first inning into a three-run lead that put the Royals on their heels for the rest of the night.
After the first three batters reached, Lynch struck out cleanup hitter Franmil Reyes. However, the next batter, Yu Chang, lined a ball to left field. Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi slipped out of his initial break and then had the ball deflect off of his glove for a three-run triple.
In the second inning, Lynch’s former college teammate, Ernie Clement, hit a one-out solo homer to give the Indians a 4-0 advantage.
Lynch didn’t allow a run over the last four innings, and he needed just eight pitches to get through the fifth inning.
Royals manager Mike Matheny said being better coming out of the bullpen and going into the first inning.
“It’s always a good take away that a guy was able to compete, stay in the game,” Matheny said. “He kept us in the game. ... But it also almost kicks the wind out of you when you come out of the gate like that. Especially when you’re looking at bases loaded and we’ve got a big inning looking us right in the face.”
The lone run against Quantrill came on Dozier’s seventh-inning solo home run. The Royals threatened to turn it into a multi-run inning after a walk by Kyle Isbel and a single by Merrifield put two on with two outs.
With major-league RBI leader and home run co-leader Salvador Perez on deck, Clement made a sliding stop on a grounder by Lopez and a throw to first to narrowly end the inning and strand a pair of runners.
“That play in particular was certainly one — a very good defensive play and a well-struck ball by Nicky — that could have been a game turner,” Matheny said.
Wednesday night’s series finale was postponed because of weather. The Royals are off Thursday and start a three-game series in Detroit on Friday. They’ll make up Wednesday’s game in Cleveland on Monday (12:10 p.m. Central first pitch) before starting their final homestand of the season next Tuesday against Cleveland (three games, Sept. 28-30) and Minnesota (three games, Oct. 1-3).
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 8:06 PM.
