Kansas City Royals shut out again ... this time 4-0 by Los Angeles Angels
The Kansas City Royals, who entered the All-Star break 20 games under .500, wound up with a 3-3 record in their first homestand of the second half.
That’s a 2-1 record against Tampa Bay; 1-2 against the Los Angeles Angels following Wednesday’s 4-0 loss at Kauffman Stadium.
“I guess I hadn’t really thought about it being a 3-3 homestand, just think about games that you feel you should have had a shot at,” manager Mike Matheny said after the Royals (39-59) suffered their second straight shutout loss and 12th shutout defeat of the season.
“We didn’t get that much going offensively (in rapping seven hits while striking out 13 times against five Angels pitchers). When we did, we didn’t get the big hit. We were talking about trying to walk out of here with another series which would have been a big deal for us because we’ve been playing better, continuing to see improvements in a lot of different things.
“Today we just had trouble getting anything going,” Matheny noted. “We had trouble picking up the break on the slider from Junk (Janson, no runs, four hits, eight Ks in five innings). We didn’t put guys in scoring position often and when we did we didn’t get the big hit. That puts a lot of pressure on our pitching staff to be able to put zeros up.”
The Royals also were shut out, 6-0, on Tuesday night after blanking the Angels, 7-0, on Monday.
Kansas City starting pitcher Brad Keller (5-11), who left his last start in the fifth inning because of a nose bleed, had a no-hitter through four innings.
The Angels (42-56) plated two in the fifth.
Kurt Suzuki led off with a line single to left deemed a double despite a bobble by left fielder Kyle Isbel. With one out, Phil Gosselin stroked a triple over the head of MJ Melendez in right field to give LA a 1-0 lead. Melendez was shaken up on the play but stayed in the game. LA made it 2-0 when Brandon Marsh stroked an RBI single.
Matheny and KC’s trainer went out to right field to check on Melendez after the triple.
“It looked bad. We were concerned about his neck or head. We get out there he was wondering why we were bothering him,” Matheny said, smiling. “It was good to hear once we got out there he was fine.”
Matheny said Melendez figures to see more time playing right field when catcher Salvador Perez returns from his rehab stint at Omaha.
“He feels comfortable out there,” Matheny said of Melendez. “The more repetitions he gets the better (he’ll be).”
The Angels might have blown the game open in the fifth. However with bases loaded and one out and the 2-0 lead, Keller enticed Gosselin into a 6-4-3 double play.
There was some comic relief of sorts in the Angels’ seventh. Marsh opened with the triple that forced the exit of Keller. KC reliever Dylan Coleman then fielded a tap to the mound by Andrew Velazquez and proceeded to throw underhand way over the head of first baseman Ryan O’Hearn (who had a big day going 3-for-4 with some nice digs at first base). Velazquez made it all the way to third and scored on a single by Shohei Ohtani to give the Angeles a 4-0 advantage.
“The play with Dylan … it’s tough how it turned out. He had the opportunity to get out of that (inning),” Matheny said. It’s a play guys work a lot on pitchers fielding in practice. (It’s) not how we designed it. He was going to underhand until he saw how hard the runner was going, how far down the line he was. He already committed underhand instead of getting on top of the ball. It was one of those I’m sure he’ll be thinking about. Got to let it go, be ready the next play.”
The Royals open a four-game set in New York against the Yankees at 6:05 p.m. Central time Thursday at Yankee Stadium. Three games follow in Chicago against the White Sox with the trade deadline coming at 5 p.m. Tuesday. There’s been talk Andrew Benintendi (1-for-4) and Whit Merrifield (0-for-3 with a walk and nice play defensively at second base) might be dealt. If they are traded, it would mean Wednesday would have been their final game in Kauffman as members of the Royals.
“We came out of the break and played a really good Tampa Bay Rays team,” Keller said, assessing KC’s play. “I thought did a really good job. We fought all these games too. Some things go our way here it’s a different series. We’re playing well. We’ve got a big road trip, two tough teams coming up. So I think this will be telling for us. To see what kind of team we are going on the road to two really good teams. I’m excited about it,” Keller added.
This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 4:06 PM.
