Guess how many base runners the Royals stranded Sunday? Try 11, in home loss to Twins
Both fittingly and frustratingly, the Kansas City Royals finished Sunday’s game with the tying run on base when Alex Gordon flew out to left field.
The Royals dropped the finale of their three-game series with the Minnesota Twins 5-4 at Kauffman Stadium. Rookie left-hander Kris Bubic fell to 0-4 this season despite having shown some encouraging signs, and Twins designated hitter Nelson Cruz inflicted pain as he typically does against the Royals.
The Twins (19-10) collected the series win, having taken two of the three games, and evened the season series with each team having won five games.
Royals slugger Hunter Dozier, who missed the start of the season due to a COVID-19 infection, reached base five times, including a walk. While Dozier went 4 for 4 with a pair of doubles, the Royals’ offense struggled overall.
“Today, I felt the best I’ve felt all year,” Dozier said. “My legs felt underneath me. I just felt good. I felt kind of like myself.”
The Royals (11-17) once again failed to fully exploit scoring opportunities and shots at big innings. They were 4 for 11 with runners in scoring position but stranded 11 men on base.
Maikel Franco had two hits and two RBIs. Whit Merrifield, Jorge Soler and Meibrys Viloria also had hits for KC.
Bubic allowed four runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked two — one man intentionally — and didn’t record a strikeout.
The Twins scored the first four runs of the game, two in the first and two in the third, repeatedly forcing the lefty to work with men on base. They collected eight hits in the first three innings, including four in the third.
“I’m just going to continue to keep learning, I’m still on the learning curve so far,” Bubic said. “Hopefully by the end of the year going into next year, I’m going to look back on days like this and hopefully laugh about them and say I got really better that day.”
The Twins loaded the bases with no outs in the third on back-to-back base hits by Cruz and Miguel Sano followed by a bunt single from Eddie Rosario. Marwin Gonzalez ripped a double down the left-field line to drive in two runs and put the Royals in a four-run hole.
With reliever Chance Adams starting to get warm in the bullpen, Bubic retired the next three batters to escape having given up two runs instead of a much bigger inning.
Bubic came out of the game with one out and two men on in the fourth after a single and an intentional walk to Cruz. Right-hander Tyler Zuber got a ground ball for an inning-ending double play by third baseman Maikel Franco and second baseman Nicky Lopez.
“Honestly, if it was easy everybody would do it and everybody would be at this level,” Bubic said. “That’s the biggest takeaway. I don’t want to beat myself up too much about it. At that same time, there are some things I need to iron out. Pitch count has been an issue lately. That’s a factor of getting leadoff hitters out, getting ahead of guy and you could rattle off a couple other things. Commend the bullpen for doing a great job after me today to keep it there.”
Soler’s two-out two-run double in the bottom of the third pulled the Royals within two runs, 4-2, but they didn’t add another run until the seventh inning.
Franco ripped an RBI single that Twins third baseman Marwin Gonzalez nearly snagged to drive in a run in the seventh and make it a one-run game, but the Royals stranded the bases loaded in the seventh when Adalberto Mondesi struck out on three pitches.
That strikeout made the Royals 2 for 21 for a MLB-low .095 batting average this season. They’ve gone hitless in their last 12 at-bats with the bases loaded dating back to Ryan O’Hearn’s single on Aug. 11 in Cincinnati.
“Did we let them off the hook in one situation? Probably,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “That’s what it’s going to come down to, again, those situations. ... That’s an opportunity. We’re able to figure out with just a league average on those amount of times with the bases loaded and that’s a five-game swing, probably.
“That’s a big hit, and it’s a whole lot easier to talk about or throw statistics at than actually get it done. But we’re going to get it done. Right now, it’s frustrating not seeing it happen. It’s encouraging as you watch these guys fight to the very last out.”
Mondesi, who entered the day batting .234 this season, has gone 3 for 25 with runners in scoring position, including 14 strikeouts, this year.
Cruz belted his 10th home run of the season in the ninth off Royals right-handed reliever Trevor Rosenthal. Rosenthal has allowed only one other home run this season, but Cruz smashed his fastball an estimated 441 feet to center field.
Dozier hit a two-out double in the ninth, and Franco drove him in with an RBI single, but the rally stopped there.
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Guess how many base runners the Royals stranded Sunday? Try 11, in home loss to Twins."
