Kansas City Royals waste Zack Greinke’s strong start in second shutout loss in three days
Crafty veteran right-hander Zack Grienke gave up one measly run, but that coupled with the Kansas City Royals offensive struggles was enough to doom him to a loss to cross state rival St. Louis in the shadow of The Gateway Arch.
Greinke’s lone mistake Monday afternoon came in the form of a Paul Goldschmidt solo home run, but that proved all the difference as the Royals lost 1-0 to the Cardinals in front of an announced 33,963 at Busch Stadium. The Royals (7-14) have lost four in a row and nine of 11.
“(He was) terrific,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Greinke. “It’s just a shame to lose such a great start and not get him any support. Really just one pitch. We say that a lot, but he executed pitches all day long. It was one slider that didn’t do what he wanted it to do. That’s not very common. Not very often is one pitch gonna beat you, but it happened to the wrong hitter.”
The game was a makeup from a previously scheduled matchup between the teams last month that was postponed because of severe weather. The Cardinals announced on Sunday that they’d moved up first pitch from a night start because of Monday’s weather forecast.
Greinke held the Cardinals to three hits with no walks and one strikeout in six innings. Goldschmidt’s homer was the only extra-base hit he allowed.
Center fielder Michael A. Taylor turned in an early candidate for catch of the year when he robbed Cardinals catcher Andrew Knizner of a homer in the fifth inning.
“It could’ve been more runs too,” Greinke said of allowing just one run. “It was a bad pitch to (Goldschmidt). Today when I made a bad pitch, a lot of the times they hit it pretty hard. One was a robbed home run. Another was a line drive at Mike in center. There was at least one hit really good (but) foul.
“I didn’t really get away with too many mistakes. But I guess I sorta got away with some because they were hit at people sometimes.”
Bobby Witt Jr., who returned to the lineup after having been scratched on Sunday because of a wrist contusion, extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an infield single in the second inning.
Carlos Santana went 2 for 4 with a double to record his first multi-hit game of the season for the Royals. Edward Olivares, who started in right field and batted in the leadoff spot against a left-handed pitcher, also doubled.
The Royals offensive struggles continued. They entered the day having scored just six runs in the previous three-game series against the New York Yankees and batting .193 with runners in scoring position for the season (27th in the majors) and slugging a MLB-worst .234 with runners in scoring position.
Against left-hander Steven Matz and the Cardinals bullpen, the problem was as much getting runners on and into scoring position as it was failing to convert those opportunities into runs.
They were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position, but they also managed just five hits (two extra-base hits) in the game. They actually out hit the Cardinals 5-4.
It’s not clear what lever the Royals can pull to try to get more out of their offense.
“If I knew, I’d have already done it,” Matheny said. “There’s only so much we can do. Hitting is hard. I mean, it’s hard. You’re going to go through some ruts. It’s going to happen with every club. Hopefully, we’re getting our rut out of the way and we can start putting some things together.
“It’s confidence as much as anything right now for each of them to feel good about walking into the box and what their approach is and that their swing is going to put them in a place to have success. That usually comes from success. We’ve got to get a couple going. That’s it.”
Goldschmidt gave the Cardinals (13-9) an early edge with a solo home run in the first inning. Goldschmidt, a former teammate of Greinke’s with the Arizona Diamondbacks, smacked an 0-2 slider into the left field stands for his second homer of the season.
“A threw a couple pitches like that with the slider and didn’t really feel comfortable that I was going to locate it good,” Greinke said.
Greinke, who made his fifth start of the season, has now gone six innings in each of his past two starts, and he also registered his second consecutive quality start with both having come on the road.
“The last two were definitely the two best,” Greinke said. “I’ll still hopefully get a little crisper, but, definitely, the last two were better than the earlier.”
Taylor did his part to keep the score 1-0 by going above the wall in center field and bringing back a sure home run for Andrew Knizner to end the fifth inning.
“The ultimate goal is to win the ballgame,” Taylor said. “It’s an exciting moment, but we’re here to win. So take it for what it’s worth. You hope that it helps the team push across the finish line, but it didn’t. So we come back tomorrow.”
Royals relievers Collin Snider and Taylor Clarke each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.
The Royals put men on base in six separate innings, including the ninth, but they didn’t put two men on at the same time. The Cardinals did not put two men on in any inning either.
Up next is the teams’ originally scheduled two-game set at Kauffman Stadium starting Tuesday night. First pitch will be 7:10 p.m. The probable pitching matchup features Cardinals right-hander Dakota Hudson (2-1, 2.75) against Royals right-hander Brad Keller (0-2, 2.19).
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 3:01 PM.
