Minutes in, overturned call helps seal Royals' fate as slide continues

KANSAS CITY – It took less than 10 minutes for Tuesday’s game against the Yankees to devolve into an unmitigated mess.

Deploying a bullpen game for the second time in a week, the Royals turned to Bailey Falter again against the Yankees on Tuesday night. It has been rocky for Falter since he joined Kansas City last summer at the Trade Deadline, and not much went right for him Tuesday – or really anything for the Royals in their 15-1 loss to the Yankees at Kauffman Stadium.

Falter recorded two quick but loud outs before allowing a laser of a home run to Cody Bellinger on a middle-middle slider. Paul Goldschmidt doubled, but the fly ball that Ben Rice hit to right fielder Jac Caglianone should have ended the inning. Instead, it turned into a catalyst. Initially ruled an out, the Yankees challenged and saw it overturned when the replay couldn’t definitively determine that Caglianone secured it prior to the ball hitting the ground.

“Top-spin liner at like 107 mph,” Caglianone said. “[On] replay, I thought I had a pretty secure grip on the ball before it, I guess, touched the ground. Little confused by that. … I think just because it was hit as hard as it was, it kind of kicked my wrist back for it to touch the ground like that. I don’t really know how it’s not a catch.”

Two pitches later, Amed Rosario hit a three-run home run.

The Yankees put seven balls in play against Falter in the first inning; six of them registered a 100 mph-plus exit velocity. Of those seven balls in play, the lowest expected batting average was .460 – and that was Rosario’s home run.

Falter was tagged with seven runs in 2 1/3 innings, inflating his ERA to 13.97 in 9 2/3 innings this season. The average exit velocity against him Tuesday was 100.3 mph.

“Just didn’t really have anything behind the ball today, so I don’t know if that’s just being in the bullpen for five days and then getting a start or not really having a role,” Falter said. “Just rolling with the punches right now.”

Despite manager Matt Quatraro saying pregame Tuesday that he felt Falter would be in a “better spot” with time to prepare for this start, Falter seemed frustrated with his role.

“I’ve been in the bullpen the past few days, been trying to do my bullpen routine,” Falter said. “Trying to stay ready, just in case I do get in the game. And then just another last-minute start. Kind of just throws a whole wrench in the plan.”

Against Falter, Luinder Avila, Steven Cruz, Eli Morgan and infielder Tyler Tolbert, the Yankees knocked 24 hits total, including six home runs. The Royals responded with six hits, their only run coming on Bobby Witt Jr.’s solo homer against Cam Schlittler in the third inning.

The Royals have lost 12 consecutive regular-season games to the Yankees dating back to Sept. 11, 2024, but the bigger concern is their play overall this season. At 22-33 and having lost 12 of their past 15 games, the Royals are falling deeper in the American League Central (nine games behind the first-place Guardians) and in the AL Wild Card standings (five games out of the third spot, with six teams ahead of them).

In a season where not many things have gone right, Monday’s loss to the Yankees in the ninth was backbreaking. Tuesday’s loss was as ugly as it gets.

And the patience for a team with high expectations is wearing dangerously thin.

“This is the kind of game that would normally be a throwaway,” first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “But when you stack it on top of yesterday and the days before, I think that’s when they really hurt. Whereas if you’re playing above .500 baseball, a game like this happens, a game like yesterday happens. It doesn’t hurt. But when you’re trying to dig yourself out of a hole – and we can pretend that we’re not in a hole as much as we want, but we are.

“It’s past Memorial Day now. We got to dig ourselves out. And I think we’re capable of doing it. But we do have to do it.”

It’s wearing on the clubhouse, which Pasquantino said should happen because they have to play better. The Royals continue to put their belief in that clubhouse.

“There’s no alternative but to stay the course,” Quatraro said. “We’re not going to blow things up. These guys are working their butts off. We talk about it all the time. You got to trust in the people and the processes that you have. And we’ve got to go out there and play better.”