Kansas City continues to have defensive meltdowns that lead to runs. This time it was third baseman Hunter Dozier that caused two errors allowing two extra runs to score.
Dozier’s back-to-back botched plays occurred in the first inning to put the Royals behind early. A hard-hit ground ball gets fielded cleanly by Dozier but a bad throw puts the first runner on base. The second batter of the inning bunts to Dozier and he fumbles the ball around to put runners on first and second. That gave Dozier back-to-back errors in the inning.
The errors would prove costly when Jordan Lyles would leave a sweeping cure ball over the middle of the plate to Josh Jung. He would launch the ball 441 to left center field driving in three runs with only one of them being earned.
Dozier said he felt bad for his poor performance on the field.
“(Lyles) was Incredible and that’s why I felt so bad When I didn’t make those two plays,” Dozier said. “He looked really good for us and I wish we could’ve played better behind him and got some runs for him.”
The Rangers added to their lead in the top of the third inning with a second home run of the game. Lyles left a breaking ball over the middle of the plate. This time it was a changeup to Marcus Semien. Semien has dominated Lyles over their career matchup he has 11 hits including a pair of home runs. That swing put the Rangers up by four.
Unlike the last time, Kansas City went up against Jacob DeGram the Royals had limited chances with runners on base. Last week in Texas Kansas City had 12 scoring opportunities when they faced DeGram. In Texas, they scored on two of those opportunities. In this game, the Royals had a runner on second base three times over the entire game and nobody made it to third.
Kansas City would not get their first hit of the game until the bottom of the fifth inning after Degram was taken out of the game. Officially he was pulled out for right wrist soreness.
After giving up the two home runs Lyles did have an overall good game. Lyles pitches through the eighth inning. He struck out three and walked three but none of them came around to score.
Halfway through the second homestand of the year the Royals have only won once in front of their home crowd and the problem continues to be their offense.
The Royals and Rangers face off again on with Brad Keller getting the start. First pitch is at 6:40
