Kansas City Royals fall apart in seventh inning of 7-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers
An abundance of optimism and enthusiasm accompanies young, talented players as they make their first marks in the majors leagues. That’s particularly true when they’ve been highly anticipated and then productive upon arrival, like Kansas City Royals rookies Bobby Witt Jr. and MJ Melendez.
But they’re not immune to mistakes. Witt and Melendez committed two of the team’s three errors in a game-altering seventh inning as the Royals fell 7-5 to the Detroit Tigers in front of an announced 14,541 on Tuesday night in the third game of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
The loss stopped a three-game winning streak for the Royals (34-53).
The Tigers (37-51) scored four runs in the seventh, only one of the runs earned.
“I think these guys are going to make plays,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I think it’s a good offensive team and a good defensive team. They’re going to be consistent on the defensive side. You’re just going to have some nights like this.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily youth as it is the difficulty of the positions that they play, and you’re talking two positions with a lot of opportunities when you’re talking behind the plate and shortstop.”
Royals relief pitcher Jose Cuas, pitching for a third consecutive day, gave up all four runs in the seventh. He allowed two hits and one walk, but the three errors ultimately doomed his outing.
“That inning got away from us, from our defense,” Matheny said. “That hasn’t happened very often this season. We’ve had some very good defense. I’m really impressed with how our guys are playing on the defensive side. Today, the defense got us a little bit.”
With the score tied 3-3 and Javier Baez (leadoff double) on third base and one out in the seventh inning, Tigers veteran slugger Miguel Cabrera hit a bouncer towards shortstop with Witt playing in.
Witt came in on the ball ready to make a throw home with his cannon of an arm, but the ball bounced past him and allowed the go-ahead run to score as Carbera reached base. The fielding error was the second error of the day for Witt, who uncorked a high throw to first base in the third inning.
“(Cuas) got that groundball that we needed,” Matheny said. “That’s kind of what he does. In that spot, we’re wanting to keep the ball on the ground on the infield and hopefully not hit too hard. It was hit right at one of our guys.
“It’s a tough play. You’ve got a plus runner. We know we’re trying to make a quick exchange. It would have probably been a bang-bang play at the plate. It would have had to have been a perfect feed with a quick release in order to get him at the plate, but we’re going for broke right there.”
Cabrera advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Then the 39-year-old Cabrera stole third base, getting an outstanding jump on Cuas, and Melendez’s throw sailed off-line and into left field as Cabrera scored to give the Tigers a two-run edge.
Cabrera has stolen a grand total of four bases since the start of the 2014 season.
“That’s the last thing on my mind, that he was going to steal a base,” Cuas said. “He got it, and he scored. He beat me, fooled me.”
The inning continued to go sideways on the Royals as Cuas walked a batter, who then stole second and scored on an RBI double. The last run scored after Cuas exited and right-hander Joel Payamps took over. Payamps committed a throwing error that let the fourth run score.
“I try to flush it,” Cuas said of the outing. “One thing I do is I look back at the pitches I made. I’m pretty content with the pitches I made. I made the pitches that needed to be made in the situation. Errors are just part of the game. It is what it is.”
Isbel, Benintendi and Melendez power the offense
Royals outfielder Kyle Isbel went 3 for 3 with a double and a run scored and an RBI, while Andrew Benintendi (2 for 5) had two RBIs and a run scored.
Melendez (2 for 5) had a double and a triple. His ninth-inning double against Tigers closer Gregory Soto brought the tying run to the plate after the Royals had rallied to score two runs in the eighth on a Benintendi double and an Edward Olivares sacrifice fly.
But the error-plagued seventh proved too much to overcome.
“It’s baseball,” Melendez said. “It’s going to happen from time to time, especially coming off of a doubleheader yesterday. We were able to win those two games yesterday. Coming into today, we were trying to get a really close game. They just had a big inning, found some key hits in some key situations and took advantage of our mistakes.
“It’s just something that happened. We can clean it up and do a better job tomorrow.”
Bubic turned things around
Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic allowed three runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five. He left the game with the score tied 3-3 in the sixth.
Early in the game, it didn’t look as though Bubic would last long enough to get through five innings, let alone nearly complete six. Bubic threw 50 pitches across the first two innings, but he made it through the next 3 2/3 innings on 49 pitches.
He pointed to a second-inning mound visit from pitching coach Cal Eldred as a turning point.
“I was able to right the ship after the first two innings, especially, and pitched into the sixth there, gave our team a chance to win,” Bubic said. Obviously, I’ve kind of made a bad habit of starting off games kinda not on the right foot. But I think after that mound visit and just being able to settle down a bit, (I was able to) find a good rhythm and kind of ride it the rest of that outing.”
