KC Royals 1-hit in loss, fall to 1-10 at home: ‘Everybody in there is frustrated’

The Kansas City Royals’ latest letdown left plenty to examine in its own right — a 4-0 Monday evening loss to the Texas Rangers at Kauffman Stadium, where the result was basically settled before the clock hit 7 p.m. on a 6:40 start.

But the greater significance of this one more needs a wide-angle lens than a microscope. With the loss, the Royals dropped to 1-10 at home — a putrid start, yes, but one even more dangerous considering the city’s potential other interests.

KC, to be fair, wasn’t supposed to compete this season. It wasn’t presumed to make the playoffs. This was a transition year after the team moved on from president of baseball operations Dayton Moore and manager Mike Matheny last season, with the organization also committing to a complete pitching overhaul from the minor leagues up.

But there was still some hope that maybe this team could surprise. Maybe stay in the race until the summer months? Hang around .500? Perhaps see where some hope and confidence might take you in an AL Central division without a true juggernaut?

So far ... nope, nope and nope. The young Royals have already torpedoed almost all of those preseason dreams with their 4-13 start, meaning that a team already fighting for relevance has stacked the odds against itself.

A 1-10 start at Kauffman Stadium — the team’s worst mark since 2018 — certainly has not helped.

“I don’t care if it’s home or road. It’s frustrating to lose, and everybody in there is frustrated,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said about the Royals’ home record afterward. “It’s not any way that we wanted to start the year, but by no means is that define how the whole year’s gonna go.”

Lots will soon be working against the Royals in the pursuit of local attention. The NFL Draft comes to Kansas City next week. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs are the Super Bowl champs, meaning they don’t need extra help to become the area’s dominant storyline.

Monday’s result, however, was actually the kind that the Royals might rather people not know about.

The Rangers’ start? A grounder to third where Royals third baseman Hunter Dozier made an errant throw. Then a bunt that Dozier double-clutched for his second error in consecutive batters.

“He knows he makes those plays,” Quatraro said. “First one looked like he just maybe didn’t set his feet to make the throw, fielded it cleanly. Second one, fumbled it a little bit. The speed of (Rangers’ Travis) Jankowski getting down the line probably has a lot to do with that.”

When asked about the consecutive errors, Dozier said his first throw cut on him as he released it, causing it to sail wide. The bunt from Jankowski, then, “hopped on me, and I kind of bobbled it just for a second.”

For his part, Quatraro said the gaffes would not affect the team’s confidence moving forward with Dozier playing that position.

“He’s gonna play a lot of third. We told him that going into the year,” Quatraro said. “Vinnie (Pasquantino) is gonna play a lot of first base. Doz is gonna play a lot of third.”

Josh Jung made sure those Royals mishaps turned into runs.

After a pop-out from Nathaniel Lowe, Jung followed with a one-towering home run to left against Royals starter Jordan Lyles ... meaning just four batters in, most of the air had already been sucked out of the home stadium.

“First slider of the game, just left it middle-middle,” Lyles said. “He put a good swing on it, and it went pretty far.”

Unfortunately for the Royals, their pitching and defense were actually their strong points on this night. Rangers starter Jacob deGrom threw four no-hit innings before leaving as a precaution with right wrist soreness, but the Royals mustered just one hit on the bullpen after that — a clean single up the middle from Matt Duffy in the fifth.

No runs, one hit, two errors in a two-hour, two-minute game. The Royals have now lost four in a row and seven of eight, while remaining the only MLB team without at least two home wins.

They’ll have two more chances against the Rangers coming Tuesday and Wednesday. But time is quickly running out if they hope to keep a city’s attention through the long summer months.

“You can’t look too much into it. I mean, it’s a long season. We’ve just got to keep showing up working, doing what we can control,” Dozier said of the team’s slow start at home. “Yeah, it’s not how we wanted to get off, but every guy in here is working hard. Every guy is trying to improve. We’re competing out there, and that’s really all we can control.”

Key moment

Dozier put the Royals in a bind to start with an errant throw and bobble on the first two balls in play, but Jung made sure those gaffes were costly.

Jung picked on a Lyles 0-0 offspeed pitch, connecting on a shot to the left-field bullpen that made it 3-0 before Royals fans had settled into their seats at Kauffman Stadium.

Player of the game

Lyles, to his credit, gutted out additional innings even after allowing a pair of early home runs to Jung and Marcus Semien.

The Royals right-hander stayed in eight innings, allowing four runs (one earned) while striking out three with three walks.

Injury report: Bubic getting second opinion

Quatraro said before Monday’s game that left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic was getting a second opinion on his arm injury after initial scans showed “underlying concerns.”

Bubic, placed on the injured list over the weekend with a left flexor strain, admitted after Saturday’s game that he felt forearm tightness early that day before pitching through it with decreased velocity. The 25-year-old had been one of the Royals’ best early-season stories before that outing, putting up 13 strikeouts with one walk in his first 11 innings of 2023.

What’s next: The Royals continue a three-game series against the Texas Rangers at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, as Brad Keller will face Nathan Eovaldi. The Royals’ Brady Singer will match up against Martin Perez in the series finale at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday.