KC Royals’ Jonathan Heasley struggles to navigate rain and Tigers, gives up 7 runs
Soggy and swept will be what the Kansas City Royals aim to avoid on Sunday after they dropped a series-clinching second game of their three-game set with the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
The Royals couldn’t do much to prevent the sogginess, as the rain arrived in the second inning and continued at varying intensity throughout the afternoon.
Royals right-hander Jonathan Heasley gave up seven runs in four innings (plus three batters) in a 8-4 loss to the Tigers in front of an announced 15,929 at Kauffman Stadium. The game was called due to rain after seven and a half innings and a 58-minute rain delay.
The Royals moved up the game’s start time three hours to 3:10 p.m. due to heavy rain in the evening’s forecast. The rain delay, which ultimately led to the game being called, started roughly 20 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.
Royals catcher Salvador Perez went 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored, and he extended his hitting streak to six games. He has hit in 13 of his last 15 games.
Rookie infielder Bobby Witt Jr. went 1 for 3 with a double and a run scored, and Nicky Lopez went 1 for 3 with an RBI for the Royals (56-84). Michael A. Taylor also had an RBI.
Tigers starting pitcher Matt Manning (2-2) held the Royals to three runs (two earned) on three hits and one walk in 6 1/3 innings.
“It’s one of those days where it’s hard to evaluate too much,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the offense. “You watch guys throwing bats. But (the Tigers) weren’t having any trouble hitting balls that find their way through. I like where we’ve been overall. But we’ve had a couple games here where it doesn’t look like the offensive attack that we would normally have. A couple guys have pitched well against us.”
In the fourth inning with the rain coming down heavily, Royals batter Michael Massey had the bat slip out of his hand on a swing and land near the camera well along the first-base side of the field.
In the bottom half of that inning, Manning uncorked a wild pitch that sailed to the backstop in the air.
Heasley, who entered the day having won consecutive starts for the first time in the majors, allowed just five earned runs in his previous two starts combined (12 innings). That included having held the Tigers to two runs over seven innings in his most recent outing on September 3.
But Heasley gave up four runs in the first three innings on Saturday.
The Tigers (54-85) have scored 18 runs in the first two games of the series.
Royals cornerstones Witt and Perez combined to give the club a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Witt lined a double off the wall in left-center field, his 24th of the season, and then scored on a single into center field by Perez.
That one-run edge was short-lived. In the top of the second inning, Tigers designated hitter Kerry Carpenter swung away on a 3-0 pitch by Heasley (3-8), and Carpenter deposited the fastball over the wall in right-center field for a game-tying solo home run.
“Obviously, as the day went on it became a very tough day to pitch,” Matheny said of Heasley’s outing. “But even early on, he had a little bit of struggle with the strike zone. First run was a 3-0 pitch that he got middle-middle. You’ve gotta throw a strike, but you put yourself in a bad spot when you work behind.
“... Overall, once we got to about the third, it came down pretty hard. They decided to keep us playing. The guys just had to keep pitching. He did a good job getting through it, but you could see his stuff had to drop. Both pitchers significantly (dropped) with the velocity.”
Adjusting to the elements
By the end of the second inning, the rain had arrived and fans in the ballpark started scurrying for cover.
“It was honestly just pretty frustrating, unfortunate,” Heasley said of the conditions. “I don’t want to make excuses. At the end of the day, I’m out there and you’ve got to compete and get your job done. And I was unable to do that today.
“At the beginning, I felt alright. Felt like I was just warming up, settling in and the rain starts coming down. Then, I just honestly had a really hard time with the grip. That was the biggest thing. So I was just trying to throw strikes at that point.”
Heasley admitted he threw primarily his fastball and changeup because he felt like he had the best grip on both of those pitches. MLB Statcast data showed his velocity as below his typical averages, and Heasley said he was cautious about footing and didn’t feel like he could “step on the gas completely.”
Recent adjustments made by Heasley with his delivery — he has gone to pitching exclusively out of the stretch — have been aimed at gaining consistency with how he lands at the end of his delivery.
In the top of the third with the rain having become more steady, the Tigers added three runs to take a 4-1 advantage.
A leadoff walk to Akil Baddoo set the table for Tigers. Then they scored three runs on three consecutive hits, a one-out triple by Victor Reyes followed by a Javier Baez double and a Harold Castro RBI single.
The Royals shaved a run off their deficit in the fourth inning when Perez swatted his second hit of the day, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then advanced and scored on consecutive infield grounders. Taylor’s grounder to third drove in Perez.
Heasley didn’t record an out in the fifth inning. He walked the leadoff batter Baddoo for the second time in the outing, and then gave up back-to-back hits to Riley Greene and Reyes; the second drove in a pair of runs and marked the end of Heasley’s outing.
“It was just kind of a frustrating day,” Heasley said. “It’s just one of those you kind of want to almost flush, and it makes you want to get ready for the next one almost. Just get back out there and kind of reset. But it is what it is. We’ll just move on from it and just get better from it.”
Royals reliever Collin Snider couldn’t immediately stop the bleeding. Snider allowed one run, not including a runner inherited that went on Heasley’s tab, on two hits in the Tigers’ four-run fifth.
The Tigers held an 8-2 lead after the fifth. It remained that way until the Royals scored a pair in the seventh on an error on a fielder’s choice followed by Lopez’s two-out RBI single.
Royals pitchers Amir Garrett (one inning, two strikeouts), Carlos Hernández (one inning, no hits, one strikeout) and Antony Misiewicz (one inning, two strikeouts) had scoreless relief outings.
This story was originally published September 10, 2022 at 7:00 PM.
