Royals’ slide extends to six game, but Kris Bubic turned in a solid second MLB start
Rookie left-hander Kris Bubic turned in an impressive second start in big leagues, but unfortunately it was wasted in a pitcher’s duel with Chicago Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish.
Darvish put the clamps on the Royals’ offense and the Cubs piled on insurance runs late with the help of a throwing error to extend the Royals’ losing streak to six games with a 6-1 loss in game one of the Kauffman Stadium portion of a four-game home-and-home set Wednesday night.
The teams played a pair of games at Wrigley Field earlier this week.
Bubic, the organization’s Pitcher of the Year in 2019, posted the first quality start of his big-league career. He allowed two runs on four hits and two walks in six innings. He also struck out six in his second start in the majors, and just his second above Single-A.
“That was exactly what we were looking for, exactly what we said were going to be the keys to the game for him — establishing that fastball,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Bubic. “It was a good sign of what we’ve been so excited about, how he carried himself. The hits he gave up today were a couple of seeing-eye singles and a bloop.”
Bubic has allowed seven hits in 10 innings, one shy of the franchise record for fewest hits through two starts.
His counterpart, Darvish, put together an even more impressive outing for the Cubs (10-2).
Darvish, coming off of seven scoreless innings in his previous start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, held the Royals (3-10) to one run on five hits and one walk in seven innings. He struck out four.
Franco doubled and scored a run for the Royals. Whit Merrifield, Salvador Perez, Ryan McBroom and Nicky Lopez each had hits in the loss.
The Royals’ lineup seemed to be under attack even before the game started. Before the first pitch was thrown, the Royals announced they’d placed outfielder Bubba Starling on the injured list with an undisclosed injury.
Starling had been listed in the original lineup as the Royals’ center fielder, but Franchy Cordero replaced him in the updated lineup.
The Royals updated their lineup again before the game, shuffling the outfield configuration with Merrifield starting in center field and Cordero out of the lineup due to a wrist injury he sustained during batting practice.
“They’re confident that tomorrow we’ll know a little bit more,” Matheny said of Cordero. “But they didn’t think it was structural as much as muscular at this point. Hopefully he’ll be better tomorrow.”
Right-handed reliever Glenn Sparkman also went on the IL with a right forearm strain. Catcher Meibrys Viloria and right-handed pitcher Scott Blewett were recalled from the club’s alternate training site — T-Bones Stadium in Kansas City, Kan.
The Royals must trim their 30-man active roster to 28 players Thursday, per MLB rules for this shortened 60-game season.
Bubic cruised through the first three innings having faced nine batters. He retired all nine, recording four strikeouts in the first two innings. He seemed to put his fastball working and also kept batters guessing with a sharp curveball and deceptive changeup.
“It was funny though, because my curveball was actually pretty bad in the bullpen,” Bubic said. “I know I threw some decent ones tonight, but I think the first three or four I bounced at 40 or 45 feet. Salvy couldn’t even block them — they were that bad.”
The Royals gave Bubic (0-2) a one-run lead in the third inning after Franco doubled and scored from third when Merrifield grounded into a double play.
But the Cubs scored two runs in the fourth inning after the first three batters reached on a single through the right side of the infield by Kris Bryant, a walk by Anthony Rizzo and a fly ball off the bat of Javier Báez that dropped into no man’s land just inside the right-field foul line. Royals second baseman Nicky Lopez and right fielder Jorge Soler had been converging on the ball.
The bloop single by Báez scored one run to tie the score at 1 and Willson Contreras hit into a double play that allowed a runner to score from third to give the Cubs a 2-1 advantage on just two hits.
Bubic gave up a single to Rizzo to start the sixth, but then he got Báez to hit into a double play. With two outs, Cubs cleanup hitter Contreras up, Bubic’s pitch count climbing, Scott Barlow ready in the bullpen and Matheny’s foot on the top step of the dugout stairs, Bubic threw a 95 mph fastball past Contreras for his sixth strikeout and his final out of the night.
Bubic threw 88 pitches, including 52 strikes.
“That was huge, that double play of Báez,” Bubic said. “I was aware of my pitch count. I knew the bullpen was going to be going eventually as I got into the 70s and 80s, but for me I want to finish that inning and give that reliever a clean inning for the seventh. I want to obviously be responsible for the runners I put out there.”
The score remained 2-1 until a two-out throwing error by Franco in the eighth extended the inning and led to two runs for the Cubs with right-hander Ian Kennedy on the mound.
The Cubs added two more runs in the top of the ninth.
Thursday night’s game will start at 6:07 p.m. CT to accommodate the FOX national broadcast.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Royals’ slide extends to six game, but Kris Bubic turned in a solid second MLB start."
