Royals fall by a run to the Tigers despite big hit from Whit Merrifield
Kansas City Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi has seemingly been on the verge of stardom for several years. His physical gifts are undeniable. His skill level and speed are elite.
But right now, he’s struggling and that, too, is undeniable.
The Kansas City Royals dropped the second game of their four-game series with the Detroit Tigers 4-3 Tuesday night at Comerica Park. All of the game’s scoring took place in the third inning, and all of the runs scored courtesy of home runs.
Whit Merrifield delivered all three of the Royals’ runs on a third inning three-run homer, his second in as many days. The Royals had just five hits in the game, and two came in the third inning.
The Royals (2-3) perhaps had a last-ditch effort to make in the ninth inning when Tigers first baseman C.J. Cron dropped Mondesi’s infield pop-up. For a split second it appeared like a potential opening the Royals needed, especially with Mondesi’s tremendous speed and the heart of the lineup coming up.
However, Mondesi hadn’t been running full speed, seemingly taking for granted that the ball would be caught, and then tried to break for second base when he realized the ball had been dropped.
Because he’d started running too late, he got caught in no man’s land and only exacerbated the situation when he broke for second. He retreated but got thrown out sliding back into first base for the second out of the inning.
“We’re going to continue to talk to him and get him to continue to breathe a bit,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He’s such a pure natural player, everything he does. And I know there are things right now he’s not happy with.
“He knows he’d loved to be standing on second base, and he wants to be on second base with that pop-up. Things kind of seem to snowball when you get on a bad run.”
Mondesi, who finished last season on the injured list following season-ending shoulder surgery, has gotten off to a rough offensive start to the season in the first five games with the exception of his two-hit game in Cleveland on Sunday.
He has gone 2-for-21 with nine strikeouts, including two Tuesday night. He also committed a fielding error when he tried to rush a play in the seventh inning on a ground ball hit by Miguel Cabrera. The error did not cost the Royals any runs.
“He’s pressing, no question,” Matheny said. “You can see that it’s in his mind about maybe not even wanting to get to two strikes and then getting real defensive maybe a little earlier than what he needs to. It’s only natural too to try to make up for that by trying to be over-aggressive and maybe even quicker than you need to defensively.”
Matheny reiterated what he’d said multiple times during training camp that Mondesi is one of the most underrated players in the “entire world of baseball.”
Royals pitchers worked with men on base for a large portion of the night. Several were due to self-inflicted wounds. They hit three batters and walked three batters and hit three batters within the first five innings.
Even with those miscues, the Royals remained within a run thanks to five scoreless innings of relief from Jake Newberry, Josh Staumont, Scott Barlow, Greg Holland and Trevor Rosenthal.
Royals “opener” Kyle Zimmer, who pitched in relief on Sunday in Cleveland, gave up one run on a hit, a walk and a hit batter. The run scored after he’d exited the game.
“I made a bunch of opens last year in Omaha,” Zimmer said. “Having that experience definitely helped as far as a routine and knowing sort of how to prepare myself going to pitch the first inning. Other than that, the mindset as an opener is just going out there and trying to close every inning and treat it like you’re trying to get three outs no matter how you do it.”
Merrifield accounted for the game’s first three runs with one swing as he smashed an 0-1 pitch from Tigers rookie starter Rony Garcia to left field for a three-run home run. The Tigers set the table by committing a pair of errors just moments earlier.
With Oscar Hernandez on first base, Brett Phillips hit a ground ball that first baseman C.J. Cron booted. Garcia then compounded the problem by picking up the ball and committing a throwing error that allowed Hernandez to advance to third and Phillips to second.
Merrifield, who came a triple shy of hitting for the cycle Monday night, made the Tigers pay for not recording at least one out on the Phillips play.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Tigers made the Royals pay for critical mistakes of their own that came in the form of putting men on base via the walk and a hit by pitch.
First, Zimmer hit Tigers nine-hole hitter JaCoby Jones in the earflap of his helmet with a 92 mph pitch. Right-hander Tyler Zuber entered the game and gave up a two-run home run to Jonathan Schoop. Schoop smashed a changeup just below the strike zone into the bushes behind the center field wall.
“I wanted it to be a little bit more inside,” Zuber said. “I kind of think I caught too much of the plate, but I feel like it was down. It wasn’t up. It was an okay one. I wouldn’t call it a great one. I’d call it an okay pitch. He just put a good swing on it, and it went out.”
Then, with two outs, he walked Cron and followed that with another two-run homer by Christin Stewart. Stewart squared up a 96 mph first-pitch fastball that appeared to catch the outer half of the plate but was also about belt high.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 8:47 PM with the headline "Royals fall by a run to the Tigers despite big hit from Whit Merrifield."
