CLEVELAND -- Shortly after the Royals saw 31 pitches from Guardians starter Gavin Williams but left the bases loaded in the top of the first inning Wednesday afternoon, Cleveland capitalized in the bottom of the frame.
Royals rookie Alec Marsh walked Andrés Giménez with one out in the first inning before José Ramírez crushed a two-run home run.
That about summed up the Royals’ 8-3 loss to the Guardians at Progressive Field, a slog that included Kansas City pitchers walking eight batters, giving up three home runs and four stolen bases, all while Royals hitters went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base.
“Any time you give away bases, that hurts,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “It’s really hard to escape that kind of damage. But [the Guardians] earned those walks, they laid off some tough pitches, they put the ball in play when you do throw strikes. They’re a challenging lineup.”
The Royals out-hit the Guardians, 12-9, yet still lost by five runs.
“That’s been the whole year, just frustrating not scoring as many runs as we’re capable of,” second baseman Michael Massey said. “It seems like we put ourselves in good positions quite often to do it, [and we are] just trying to come up big in those situations. Whether it’s luck, whether it’s a change in our approach, it’s something we’re going to have to keep working on.”
The Royals head home after a dismal 1-5 road swing through New York and Cleveland, returning to Kauffman Stadium on Friday with a 29-75 record. With 58 games to go, they are on pace to shatter the franchise record of 106 losses set by the 2005 team.
The hitting has been disappointing this year with a young lineup learning on the fly, and the pitching also remains frustrating. The Royals’ 5.27 staff ERA ranks third-worst in baseball. It could get worse after Tuesday’s Trade Deadline, as Kansas City is expected to trade closer Scott Barlow and are having conversations about reliever Carlos Hernández, who has a 3.78 ERA, and starter Ryan Yarbrough, who has a 4.70 ERA but has only allowed five runs in his last 17 2/3 innings.
The rest of the staff will be looking for improvements. That includes Marsh, who now has a 7.05 ERA in the first five starts of his career. The right-hander walked four in 2 2/3 innings -- the shortest outing of his MLB tenure -- and, after Ramírez’s homer, has allowed nine homers in 21 innings. Marsh got behind 2-1 to Ramírez before leaving a fastball in the middle of the plate.
Marsh has long struggled with walks and homers in his Minor League career; his walk rate never dipped below 10.1% in the Minors, while he gave up 28 homers in 124 1/3 innings last season alone.
“If you walk guys in this league, they’re going to score,” Marsh said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ve got a lot of things to look at. I don’t care if I give up solo home runs, but when there are guys on base, you can’t give up home runs.
“... I thought my focus of attacking, using my strengths, wasn’t all the way there today. It wasn’t a great day for me. It set up the rest of the game, just how it got ugly, walking guys and stuff, it starts with me. I got to be able to get us in that game, keep us in that game.”
When Marsh exited with the bases loaded and two outs in the third inning, Quatraro called on Jonathan Heasley to limit the damage. It was not the ideal time for Heasley’s first walk of the year, but he walked Steven Kwan on five pitches, scoring a run.
The Royals want to give more opportunities to Heasley in the ‘pen as they figure out if there’s a future there. But he gave up three more runs in the fourth inning, including a walk and two homers.
“Last thing you want to do in that situation,” Heasley said. “Unfortunately, just got behind [Kwan] and wasn’t able to execute the pitches there. … One of those things we’ve talked about, you have to go through it just to figure out how to better prepare yourself for the next one. You learn from [it] and be ready for it the next time you get the opportunity.”