Kansas City Royals’ bullpen unable to lock it down as Guardians salvage series split
The Cleveland Guardians seemed to take advantage of just about every opening the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff left them. It showed in the final score as the Royals gave up double-digit runs for the second consecutive day.
Meanwhile, the Royals left some crucial runs on the field Monday afternoon during a 10-7 loss in front of an announced 8,971 at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals rallied from an early deficit to tie the score in the fourth inning, but they allowed six runs in the final three innings and dropped the finale of a season-opening four-game series.
The Royals (2-2) split the series with the Guardians after winning the first two games. They’d won those games by a combined score of 4-1 and lost the last two by a cumulative 27-10.
“Yesterday was just kind of one of those deals,” infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said. “But today, we had some stuff that just didn’t quite go our way that would’ve helped propel us and give us a little momentum. But it is what it is. We’re 2-2 to start the year. We could be worse, we could be better.”
Royals starting pitcher Carlos Hernández allowed four runs on six hits, including a home run, and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He gave up two runs in the first after the first three batters reached base on an infield hit and back-to-back walks.
The Royals’ offense pulled even by the time he turned it over to the relief corps.
“After the first, I thought he had everything going,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Hernández. “A couple infield hits didn’t help him in the first. The walks. But we’re just going to have to get past that.
“After that, I thought he settled down. I thought he looked pretty good. Unfortunately, a couple of longer innings got him to a point where he hadn’t really been too far (beyond) this spring. But overall, I thought he did a nice job of gaining his composure and keeping us in the game.”
The Guardians broke open what had been a tie game entering the seventh inning against bullpen stalwarts Jake Brentz (two runs), Josh Staumont (two runs) and Scott Barlow (one run).
Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi went 3 for 3 with a home run and three RBIs. He was on base five times, including a pair of walks. All-star Salvador Perez snapped an 0-for-12 to start the season with two hits (2 for 4) and his first RBI of the season. Perez was on base three times.
Merrifield went 2 for 5 with an RBI and a stolen base. Merrifield’s steal gave him 160 for his career and tied him with Alcides Escobar for eighth place on the Royals’ all-time list.
But the Royals went 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
“I thought the offense gave us some good opportunities,” Matheny said. “We missed some opportunities, too, but we sure did put together some good at-bats. Benny had a good day. A couple hits for Salvy. A couple hits for Whit.
“We had some things that we did well. You get in those tight games, it’s going to come back to what we were preaching all last year, the situation hitting. We had them a couple times and let them off the hook.”
The Royals scored a run in the third on Perez’s RBI single, and they tied the score with a three-run fourth. The score remained tied until the seventh.
After Brentz gave up a leadoff single, a sacrifice bunt and a two-out walk to Steven Kwan in the seventh inning, the Guardians added two runs on bloop singles by Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes that cleared the infield and dropped in front of the Royals’ outfielders.
The singles came against Staumont, but the runs were charged to Brentz.
“Well, they doinked their way into a couple runs,” Merrifield said. “Josh made good pitches. Jose flared one to left. Franmil jammed one to right. What do you do? You make good pitches and sometimes that happens, so I’m not worried at all. That’s just how baseball goes sometimes.”
Trailing 6-4, the Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the seventh.
Hunter Dozier’s fly ball to left-center pulled the Royals within a run, 6-5, when Kwan couldn’t catch it cleanly. Guardians center fielder Myles Straw picked it up in time to narrowly get the force out at second base because Carlos Santana had to wait to see if the ball was caught before advancing to second. Benintendi, who singled to start the inning, scored on the play.
But the Royals got just one run after loading the bases with no outs. Adalberto Mondesi grounded sharply into an inning-ending double play one batter after the force-out at second base.
In the eighth, Staumont put two on with one out before he handed it over to Barlow. Barlow, who recorded a team-high 16 saves and won the club’s Pitcher of the Year last season, retired the first batter he faced. He then walked Straw to load the bases ahead of Kwan, who’s in the middle of a historic start to his major-league career.
Barlow came within one pitch of keeping it a one-run game, but his 1-2 curveball to Kwan stayed up when Barlow wanted to bounce it. Kwan swatted the pitch into right field and it rolled into the corner for a two-out three-run triple that gave the Guardians a 9-5 lead.
“Especially with Straw, I could’ve gotten ahead a little bit better,” Barlow said. “I just got done watching the video. The first couple were pretty good. Close but not over the zone, which is unfortunate — walking him and then loading the bases for Kwan.
“I got ahead of (Kwan), which I was happy with, but the put away pitch — the curveball — was intended for the dirt, but got a little too much zone. He got enough bat on it to get it over Carlos’ head.”
Kwan finished the day having reached safely 15 times through his first four career games, the most by any player in his first four games since at least 1901, according to Baseball Reference.
Six of the Guardians’ runs in the game scored when they had two outs.
The Guardians added a run in the top of the ninth, and the Royals chipped away with two in the bottom half on a two-run homer by Benintendi, but that closed the scoring.
The Royals now travel to St. Louis to begin a two-game I-70 series with the Cardinals at Busch Stadium Tuesday night.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 4:55 PM.
