Wacha provides relief for Royals' 'pen, but efforts fall short after long rain delay

KANSAS CITY – After getting swept by the Rangers in Arlington 11 days ago, the Royals wanted to flip the script at home and had momentum with their series-opening win on Tuesday. The back-to-back losses that followed made the way it ended sting even more.

A 4-2 loss to the Rangers on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium handed the Royals a series loss, snapping a streak of back-to-back series wins.

“We go to their place and get swept, doesn’t leave a good taste in your mouth,” Jac Caglianone said. “They come here pretty quickly after, and all you want to do is even it up. You don’t know who you’re going to face in the playoffs, but it’s the last time we’re going to see them this year. As a team, [we're] frustrated for sure.”

The teams had to wait out a two-hour, 20-minute rain delay despite not more than a few drops of water falling the entire time. There was anticipation of storms in the area around mid-afternoon, and the teams didn’t want to burn their starters to wait out a delay mid-game, especially with the state of a taxed Royals bullpen.

“There were a line of storms that, with the humidity, were popping up and could have hit us any time between the late 1 o’clock hour through 3 o’clock,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “No teams want to lose starting pitching, and I thought we were just trying to make sure that the storms went through. They were very definitive [of] the time they were going to be gone, regardless of what hit us. A couple of them popped up nearby and ended up missing us. We were fortunate with that. Frustrating for everybody to not start on time when it doesn’t end up raining, but you can’t fault – you don’t know what’s going to happen this time of year with the weather.”

When it did start, Royals starter Michael Wacha wasn’t as sharp as the Royals needed him to be, allowing four runs on nine hits in seven innings. Wacha allowed one run in each of the first three innings and was working without his best stuff, he said, frustrated with some of the hits he allowed early in the game. One of those was a non-executed changeup to Corey Seager in the third for a solo home run. The Rangers worked Wacha’s pitch count up to 51 through three innings before he made an adjustment.

“Just some waste pitches, I would say, just non-competitive pitches there in those first couple of innings,” Wacha said. “Just tried to make a quality pitch in the zone to the corners, trust my stuff in the zone and was able to get some quick outs.”

Those innings were, at least, what the Royals needed. Kansas City was essentially forced into a bullpen game on Wednesday night after starter Seth Lugo was hit in the head by a line drive in the fourth inning. The ‘pen covered 6 2/3 innings in the 10-inning affair, with some relievers being used on a day the Royals were really hoping to stay away from them due to their recent usage.

Wacha’s effort gave those relievers a day off, with Beck Way – the only reliever who didn’t throw Wednesday – closing out Thursday’s game.

“I saw the way that game played out yesterday and knew our guys were a little short in the bullpen with the amount of work they’ve been getting,” Wacha said. “So as a starter, you take that as a challenge and try to get as deep as you can into the ballgame.”

Wacha began the season as the Royals’ best starter, as steady as ever. In his first 11 starts, he posted a 2.69 ERA (21 earned runs in 70 1/3 innings). Wacha has hit a bit of a rough patch since the end of May. In a small sample size of three starts, he has posted a 7.13 ERA (14 earned runs in 17 2/3 innings).

“Those are three losses on me,” Wacha said. “Got to get back in that win column for this club. There’s definitely some frustration on my end that I haven’t really given the guys a chance to win a ballgame.”

The only run support Wacha received came in the fourth when the Royals loaded the bases and got a run in on Michael Massey’s double-play groundout, before Kameron Misner kept the rally alive with his first hit and RBI as a Royal. The Royals never got a man past first base after the fourth.

“We hit a lot of balls on the ground against [Rangers starter Kumar] Rocker,” Quatraro said. “I thought the guys competed. We drove them up, pitch-count wise. We just couldn’t break through.”