Mariners get to Keller with a 4-run inning as Kansas City Royals lose series opener
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller committed the fielding error that ultimately ruined his promising outing and put the club’s sputtering offense in a hole it couldn’t dig out of.
Keller’s error came as part of a four-run fourth inning for the Seattle Mariners as the Royals dropped the series opener, 4-1, in front of an announced 24,206 at T-Mobile Park on Friday night.
The Royals (5-7) now have lost back-to-back games and fell to 0-2 on the road.
Royals star catcher Salvador Perez hit his fifth home run of the season, which also marked his fifth consecutive game in T-Mobile Park with a home run dating back to last season.
The Royals’ Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 4, and Hunter Dozier (1 for 4) doubled.
Keller, who’d given up two runs in his first 13 innings of the season, gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings against the Mariners.
“He threw great,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Keller. “He should’ve been walking out of there with six shutout. You get into the fourth, you’ve got two busted bats and a couple guys get on. We’ve got a double-play ball whether he gets out of the way or whether he fields it clean. We’re walking out of there with a zero and I think he’s at 59 pitches maybe through four and sailing.”
Six of the first nine outs Keller recorded were on grounders to the infield. He also struck out a pair in the first inning.
The Mariners hit just one fly ball in the first three innings, and his four-seam fastball, which reached 96 mph, had been electric at times early.
“It was probably the best fastball I’ve had in a long time,” Keller said. “I felt really good with everything. Essentially if I could make a play there in the fourth, we could be talking about a different ballgame right there. I can’t have an error right there. We need a double play. Ultimately, that’s what caused the whole inning to kind of spiral out of control.”
The Mariners’ first signs of life offensively came with one out in the fourth inning. Eugenio Suarez and J.P. Crawford hit back-to-back flares that dropped in for singles, then Keller committed the first error of the season by a Royals fielder on a bouncer back to the mound by Abraham Toro.
Anxious to start a double play, Keller instead didn’t field the ball cleanly. Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi nearly made an outstanding barehanded play to still get an out at first base. However, Toro beat the throw and loaded the bases for highly-touted Mariners prospect Julio Rodriguez.
“Basically, you’re getting the big break that you need right there after two bloop hits, I guess, you could call them,” Keller said. “Getting a ball right back to you, just thinking double play and getting excited. Basically, I tried to turn two without the ball. I just came up really quick and the ball just went right underneath my glove.”
Rodriguez, who Baseball America ranked the No. 2 prospect in baseball ahead of the Royals’ young phenom Bobby Witt Jr. (No. 3), chased a 3-2 pitch up out of the zone and smashed a double to deep center field that Royals outfielder Michael A. Taylor cut off before it got to the wall, but two runs scored on the play.
“I just kept trying to challenge him,” Keller said. “Three-two count, bases loaded, I don’t want to fiddle with the edges or whatever. Just go after him. I kept making pitch after pitch, and then he put a good swing on one which I think was up and out of the zone. So like I said, just try to keep challenging him.”
Rodriguez’s double put two more runners in scoring position for Jarred Kelenic.
“It was a ball,” Perez said of the pitch to Rodriguez. “If you look at the video, I think it was up and away. If you walk him, walk him and we can get the next guy. He put a pretty good swing on it there, but I think it was a pretty good pitch.”
Kelenic, Baseball America’s No. 4 overall prospect last year before his major-league debut, jumped on a first pitch that caught too much of the middle of the plate and roped a triple to center field on a drive that bounced on the warning track just out of the reach of Taylor, who was on a full sprint.
That drove in two more runs and staked the Mariners and starting pitcher Chris Flexen to a 4-0 lead.
Flexen held the Royals to just one run on six hits in seven innings. His lone hiccup having come on a 1-0 changeup that Perez pounded into the left-field stands for a solo homer in the sixth inning.
The Royals’ bullpen extended its scoreless innings streak to 24 2/3 innings. Gabe Speier, Brady Singer and Joel Payamps each pitched in relief of Keller. Singer left the game after recording the final two outs of the seventh inning. He got hit by a ball batted back up the middle by the first batter he faced.
The Royals’ only extra-base hits were Perez’s homer and Dozier’s double in the second inning. They had eight hits and hit into three double plays.
“We cannot hide anything,” Perez said of the offense. “We don’t hit really good right now, everybody. I think except for Nicky (Lopez) and (Benintendi), they’ve got pretty good numbers. The rest of the team, the season is up and down. We’re going to try our best every day. Hopefully, it’s coming quick.”
The teams continue their three-game series on Saturday night. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. (CT) with Royals left-hander Kris Bubic (0-1, 10.80) set to start opposite Mariners right-hander Matt Brash (1-1, 3.38).
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 11:33 PM.
