Royals outfielder Alex Gordon ready to start another streak after rare error

Alex Gordon retreated into Kauffman Stadium on Friday during the fourth inning of a 5-1 win against the Braves, searching for the club’s ace, Edinson Volquez.

“Man, I’m sorry,” Gordon said when he finally found him near the batting cage.

Volquez was shocked.

Yes, Gordon had dropped a fly ball in deep left-center field off Freddie Freeman’s bat during the top half of the inning, but it was, literally, the first error Gordon had committed since Volquez joined the team before the 2015 season.

In fact, Gordon has made only 12 errors in 813 games in the outfield during the last seven seasons, and Friday’s was his first since Aug. 2, 2014, at Oakland — when he overran a single by Jonny Gomes in the fifth inning, booting it as an unearned run scored.

Volquez managed to work around the error without giving up a run, but he said Gordon still was “really mad” about the miscue and apologized.

Volquez’s reply: “Who cares? Nobody scored and we got out of the inning.”

It’s understandable why Gordon was unhappy. He has set a standard for excellence in left field.

Gordon won four straight Gold Gloves from 2011-14 and might have added another were it not for a groin injury that caused him to miss 50 games last summer.

“Anytime you make an error like that you’re mad, but luckily (Volquez) was able to pick me up,” Gordon said. “I was kind of joking, telling him ‘I’m sorry,’ but obviously we got out of the inning, so we could laugh about it and joke around about it.”

Gordon had gone 188 games, including 187 starts and the entire 2015 season, without an error.

The Royals’ club record for consecutive games without an error by an outfielder is 240, by David DeJesus from September 2008 to July 2010.

“That’s good company right there,” Gordon said. “I learned a lot from him in the outfield.”

Gordon, who switched from third base to left field in 2010, didn’t know the particulars of his errorless streak, only that he hadn’t flubbed a ball on defense in a long time.

He doesn’t plan to misplay another anytime soon.

“It was a good run, but it’s going to happen every once in a while,” he said. “Fortunately, no damage was done. I know last year I didn’t have any errors, so I knew there was a good streak. It comes to an end, but it’s time to start a new one.”

Wind probably played a factor in Gordon’s error. The steady 20-mph flag-flapping breeze Friday made every ball in the air an adventure.

“With Freeman, with the tail and the spin on the ball with the wind blowing in hard, it was definitely a tough read …” center fielder Lorenzo Cain said. “Wind was definitely a factor tonight. I hadn’t seen him drop a ball in a long time, but the wind was crazy tonight.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Royals outfielder Alex Gordon ready to start another streak after rare error."