Royals lose their eighth consecutive series, a Royals record.
The game was another game featuring the young batters coming to their own. Every position player was in the lineup at first pitch got on base. If the Royals are going to have success moving forward it is going to be off the bat of the young crew.
The young crew’s offense did show up. Bobby Whitt Jr. drove in two runs. Vinnie Pasquantino did not end up with a hit but was able to get on base with two walks on the day. Michael Massy was also able to reach base on a pair of walks.
One of the biggest innings, for the Royals was in the bottom of the fourth inning. Freddie Fermin homered to center field. He smashed a hanging changeup 427 feet. Then a few batters later Whitt Jr. hit an over-the-middle-of-the-plate four-seam fastball to the same part. Whitt Jr.’s home run drove in two runs. Unfortunately, for Kansas City, they would not be able to put more runs on the board despite multiple opportunities.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Kansas City flushed a perfect opportunity to score. The inning started with a Salvador Perez strikeout. Then the Royals loaded the bases with Maikel Garcia walking, Massey, who was hit by a pitch and Fermin walked. None of them crossed the plate to score. The Royals had 10 walks and little to show for it.
Kansas City left 15 men on base including seven runners in the last three innings.
Manager Matt Quatraro said Kansa City needs to do a better job capitalizing on those opportunities but was also looking at the positive side of things.
“To leave that many guys stranded you have to have some good at-bats, too, to put them on base,” Quatraro said. “We put a lot of good at-bats together so there is a flip side to everything.”
Singer’s stats continue to implode as he forces Kansas City to go to their bullpen very early. Singer had little trouble in the first inning. Singer did hit Ryan Noda with a pitch but he was able to work around him. Singer hitting a batter early was just the beginning of more to come.
In the second inning, the A’s took the lead with a two-run single. One of those runs would score after taking a walk. Multiple times in the inning he worked himself into a hitter’s count and hit his second batter of the day.
In the third inning, Singer gave up a solo home run and gave up another walk. His day came to an end after giving up two more runs after the fourth inning.
Singer was missing high with his sinker through the day. And when he did put the sinker in the strike zone it was barreled by Oakland. Every run scored was a hit off of his sinker.
Unlike earlier in the week the bullpen was able to stop the bleeding and shut out the A’s for the rest of the night. Kansas City could not get enough offense to close the gap.
Kansas City hopes to avoid being swept by Oakland on Sunday. First pitch is at 1:10
