Kansas City Royals rally, but the bullpen falters late in a 13-7 loss to the Mariners
The Kansas City Royals’ bullpen had been the club’s most reliable facet of their season thus far, but it took a gut punch late Saturday night in a loss to the Seattle Mariners.
The Royals gave up six runs in the eighth inning of what had been a tie game and suffered a 13-7 loss to the Mariners in front of an announced 28,583 in the second game of the three-game series at T-Mobile Park.
The Royals (5-8) will try to avoid being swept in the three-game series on Sunday.
Royals star catcher Salvador Perez got hit by a pitch on the right hand during the seventh inning. He remained in the game and ran for himself, but he then came out of the game the following inning. Royals manager Mike Matheny said X-rays came back negative on Salvador Perez’s hand and called that “great news.”
Royals left-handed reliever Jake Brentz gave up five runs in the eighth, an inning he started with four consecutive walks. Reliever Dylan Coleman took over for Brentz with two outs and two men on and gave up a three-run homer to Mariners first baseman Ty France in the inning.
“Pretty self-explanatory, just flat-out terrible,” Brentz said of his outing. “My arm felt great out there. I felt good. I just didn’t make my pitches. Command was all over the place, but I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Brentz, who was traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Mariners in July 2015 and then traded by the Mariners to the Pittsburgh Pirates in September 2016, came on with the score tied 7-7 to start the eighth inning. He was the sixth relief pitcher of the night for the Royals after starter Kris Bubic didn’t record an out in the third inning.
Brentz walked Mariners cleanup hitter Eugenio Suarez on four pitches to start the outing, and then issued walks to Abraham Toro and Tom Murphy to load the bases. Both Toro and Murphy walked on full counts as did the fourth batter of the inning, Julio Rodriguez, to force in the go-ahead run.
“It’s just unacceptable to go out there in a tie game and put my team in hole like that, put Coleman in a hole like that,” Brentz said. “I’ll be back tomorrow. It’s just one game. I’ve just got to shake it off. Can’t dwell on it. It’s the big leagues. You’ve just got to move on, have a short memory. It sucks. I’m pissed off about it, obviously, but I can’t dwell on it tomorrow. I’ve just got to go out and be ready to go.”
Brentz struck out Jarred Kelenic swinging, but Jesse Winker followed with a two-run double to right field that gave the Mariners a three-run advantage.
“He just had to try and figure it out,” Matheny said. “He was one pitch away, the ball four to (Rodriguez) was probably one of the closer pitches, but he’d been pretty wide. So wasn’t expecting to get a lot of borderline calls. He gets that, he has a couple more lefties coming up and he has a chance to get us out of that.”
Coleman entered the game with the Royals trailing 10-7 and runners on second and third with two outs, and the Mariners (9-6) weren’t done yet.
Coleman got Adam Frazier to fly out to shallow center field. Then France hit an 0-1, 98-mph fastball 407 feet to center field for a three-run homer.
The Mariners’ late-inning exploits wiped away an explosive rally the Royals made to take the lead.
The Royals, who’d scored just four runs total in their previous three games, rallied from a four-run deficit to take the lead on Edward Olivares’ pinch-hit RBI double in the seventh inning. That came during a three-run inning that included a Carlos Santana two-run homer.
Perez got hit by a pitch on the right hand during that inning, and he was aboard for Santana’s home run. Santana, who’d gone 2 for 32 entering the day, also walked twice and scored a run prior to his seventh-inning homer.
The Royals’ offense collected four extra-base hits, and seven players had at least one hit. As a group, they recorded their first game with 10 hits or more this season.
Andrew Benintendi (2 for 5, run scored, RBI), Hunter Dozier (2 for 5, run, RBI) and Bobby Witt Jr. (2 for 5, RBI) had two hits apiece, while Whit Merrifield, Dozier and Olivares hit doubles.
“They fought really well to get us back, give us a lead,” Matheny said. “Then to give that up usually take a little more out of you, knowing we just kind of need one of those games to where if we are down that we take it and we keep it. Unfortunately, we let it slip away.”
Bubic allowed five runs on seven hits, one home run, one walk and a balk in two innings plus two batters in the third.
He has now allowed 11 earned runs in seven innings (three starts) this season.
“I put the team in another bad spot,” Bubic said. “As frustrating as it is and as frustrating as it has been so far for me, I’ve just got to keep moving forward and put this one behind me. Just keep working and move forward. That’s really the only choice I have.”
The Royals’ bullpen saw its scoreless inning streak snapped at 27 2/3 innings when rookie reliever Collin Snider gave up a sixth-inning RBI double. That also marked the first run allowed in Snider’s major-league career.
It was the fourth-longest streak in franchise history. Every member of the current bullpen pitched at some point during the streak. Joel Payamps, Ronald Bolanos and Amir Garrett each pitched scoreless outings on Saturday night.
The teams will conclude their three-game set on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. CT. The Mariners list left-hander Robbie Ray (2-1, 4.19) as their probable starter, while Carlos Hernandez (0-0, 7.27) is slated to start for the Royals.
This story was originally published April 24, 2022 at 12:28 AM.
