Lucas Erceg exited the game after getting hit on the foot.
This game started so promising, but it completely unraveled in all phases. Offense, pitching, health. It just was all…so…terrible.
First, the promising part. The Royals used the lines to their advantage to score a run to start the game in the first inning. Bobby Witt Jr smoked a ball into left field for a double and took third on a wild pitch from Jackson Jobe. Then Vinnie Pasquantino hit one just fair down the first base line for another double to score Bobby.
Sadly, they could not manage much else. Salvador Perez grounded out, then Maikel Garcia walked and stole second to have runners at second and third with two outs and Michael Massey up to bat. He waved at a slider for a strikeout, ending the threat.
The Royals scattered baserunners across the rest of the innings, but they utterly failed at bringing any of them in until the ninth inning, when Vinnie singled in Bobby and then a bunch of nonsense (catcher interference, bases loaded walk) scored another run. Familiar story, same outcome, too late.
Similarly, Cole Ragans looked rather dominant at the beginning of the game. He struck out Gleyber Torres on a loopy curveball that froze him in his tracks. He got Andy Ibañez to wave uselessly at a middle-middle fastball. But that too would unravel.
In the second inning, Spencer Torkelson led off with a walk and took second on a blocked pitch. Tomas Nído brought him in with a single to tie the game. In the fourth, the aforementioned Ibañez was not fooled a second time and blasted a middle-high fastball into the left-center seats to take the lead 2-1.
The Tigers chased Ragans in the fifth. He gave up another leadoff walk and allowed two more singles to score another run, making it 3-1 Tigers. Q pulled him then after 96 pitches and zero outs in the inning. He had eight strikeouts in only four innings, but it was just taking him a lot of pitches to get anywhere.
John Schreiber came in and promptly gave up another single, making it 4-1 Tigers. He was then able to induce a double play, but the Tigers still scored to make it 5-1.
Then it went from bad to worse in the seventh inning. Lucas Erceg came in to pitch and got the first two outs quickly. Then he took a Riley Greene batted ball off his foot and immediately came out of the game limping. Angel Zerpa came in and gave up two more hits to make it 7-1 before getting the final out.
The Royals did manage to get the tying run to the plate in the ninth with the bases loaded, but you can guess what happened (strikeout, lineout, game over). The Royals couldn’t score runs (despite leaving 14 runners on base), the pitching got lit up, and they lost one of their best relievers to a foot injury for a yet-to-be-determined amount of time. Maybe he’ll be OK? I don’t know. It’ll hurt for awhile.
The offensive slump continues. The Royals have lost five games in a row. The record is 8-13.
The Royals play the Tigers again tomorrow, Saturday April 19th, at 12:10pm central.