Late offense not enough for the Kansas City Royals in series-opening loss to the Rangers
The Kansas City Royals took advantage of some opportunities presented by Texas Rangers miscues — most prominently in their three-run seventh inning — but the Royals had already dug too big a hole for themselves.
Brad Keller allowed a season-high six runs (five earned) on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings as the Royals lost 6-4 to the Rangers in front of an announced 15,407 for the first game of a three-game series at Globe Life Field on Tuesday night. The Royals have now lost eight of their last 10 games.
Tuesday’s game marked the beginning of the second leg of a three-city road trip for the Royals (9-18), who are now 3-9 on the road this season.
“I thought he got better as he went,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Keller. “Obviously, there were a couple pitches he’d like to have back. The fastball and the home run. He gets two quick outs, good plays behind him, and then a ball that got too much of the plate and came back. I think he was just having a little trouble controlling the movement.
“... It’s just unfortunate when you get down that many, it’s hard to keep us in the game. He stopped it and gave us a chance. We got within striking distance.”
Hunter Dozier went 2 for 3 with two runs scored, and MJ Melendez (1 for 4) had an RBI single. Whit Merrifield (1 for 4, RBI) and Michael A. Taylor (1 for 4, RBI, run) also drove in runs.
Keller gave up three first-inning runs, including the first of two home runs in the game by Rangers free-agent offseason acquisition and two-time All-Star shortstop Corey Seager.
Keller (1-3) had given up just two home runs in his first 31 innings of this season.
Seager started the scoring with an opposite-field solo home run on a 96-mph 1-2 fastball. The Rangers tacked on two more runs after back-to-back singles by Jonah Heim and Adolis Garcia.
“Honestly, I thought it was a pretty good pitch,” Keller said of the pitch to Seager. “I threw a four-seam. I kind of wanted to start off the plate and cut back. If anything, it cut a little bit too fat back. But I honestly was going right after him. Got two quick outs and got two strikes, and I was like I don’t want to sit here and mess around throwing balls in the dirt. I wanted to go at him, and a good piece of hitting right there.”
Heim went from first to third on the Garcia single to center, but Royals outfielder Michael A. Taylor fumbled the ball while taking it out of his glove to throw it into the infield. That allowed Garcia to advance to second base and put a second runner in scoring position.
That second runner proved important as Kole Calhoun lined a two-run single to left field.
Seager made it a 4-0 lead with another solo homer, this time to right field, to start the third inning. In the fourth inning, Keller gave up a two-out RBI single up the middle by Brad Miller after Nick Solak singled and stole second base.
The Rangers chased Keller with two outs in the sixth. A double by Solak and a walk by Eli White put two on with two outs, and Matheny called upon left-handed reliever Amir Garrett out of the bullpen with the left-handed hitting Miller due up.
Instead, Rangers sent pinch hitter Charlie Culberson to the plate. A double steal and a Garrett wild pitch allowed Solak to score the final run charged to Keller. The Royals trailed 6-1 after six innings
Of the nine hits Keller allowed, six were singles to go along with one double and the two Seager homers.
“It’s just the way the ball bounces sometimes,” Keller said. “I have all the trust in the world in our staff and players. That’s kind of been my entire goal this whole season, let them hit the ball. I felt like last year I just messed around too much and got to too many three-ball counts. This year I want to go after guys. Sometimes they bounce right to us, and sometimes they don’t.”
The Royals trailed 6-1 going into the seventh inning, but they pulled within two runs.
In the seventh, they benefited from back-to-back errors committed by Culberson at third base on balls hit by Dozier and Emmanuel Rivera. Then with one out, Taylor won a 10-pitch duel that included four fouled-off pitches with two strikes.
Taylor blooped in an RBI single in front of Rangers right fielder Kole Calhoun, and it started a three-run inning. Merrifield, who’d been mired in an 0-for-19 slump, followed with an RBI single. Nick Lopez’s ground ball to first base led to a force out at second base, but also allowed a runner to score from third.
“Hitting is contagious,” Merrifield said. “You see some things happen, see a guy kick a ball and kind of get you a break, get somebody on base, get things going — that’s the kind of stuff you need to build momentum.
“We haven’t done a lot of that lately, and you’ve got to just try to do a better job of creating opportunities, whatever that looks like — a walk, a hit by pitch, beat out an infield single, get a blooper, hit a double. Whatever it may be, just something to get it going.”
The three-run inning was as far as it went on Tuesday night. The Royals put two men on with two outs in the eighth, but couldn’t score. They went down in order in the ninth, including on a diving catch by Calhoun that robbed Merrifield of a hit.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 10:37 PM.
