Royals vs Mariners: Loss Drops KC To 5.5 Back In Wild Card

Losses at this time of year are very costly, especially when three teams ahead of you in the wild card race were victorious. The 6-4 loss by the Kansas City Royals (72-67) to the Seattle Mariners dropped the Royals to 5.5 games back of the Tampa Rays. Kansas City has just 24 games to try to make up the difference.

Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

On the Mound

There was no magic for Ervin Santana on Wednesday. Santana struggled mightily and could not get through the 4th inning. He gave up 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. He didn’t strikeout a batter.

Seven relievers were used to get through the remaining 5.2 innings. The first six held the Mariners at bay but Aaron Crow walked Franklin Gutierrez in the 9th and gave up a home run to Kendrys Morales to lose the game.

At the Plate

The Royals did absolutely nothing out side of the 4th inning, when they bunched up a walk and 4 hits to score all for of their runs. Kansas City did not get a single hit outside that frame, and only coaxed 2 other walks.

Jarrod Dyson came through with a big 2-run, 2-out single in that 4th inning. He was then caught stealing to end the inning.

This and That

Ervin Santana has 261 career starts and this was only the 5th time he has gone without a strikeout. (Thanks to Joel Goldberg of Fox Sports Midwest for dropping that gem into last night’s telecast.)

Ned Yost, flush with a full bullpen, decided to just use them all for no apparent reason. The Royals have one of the best relief corps in baseball and it hasn’t been a 1-batter unit all season. I’m not quite sure why Yost felt the need to restrict the innings of everyone. Wade Davis recorded the most outs with 4 and he only allowed 1 hit. He is used to throwing more pitches; there was no reason to pull him so quickly early in a tie game. He was pitching well.

Yost used two guys to record just one out and another for just 2 outs. Maybe this is me just being too critical, but just because he has all of those arms, doesn’t mean he has to use them all. This isn’t necessarily the reason the Royals lost (2 base runners total in 8 of the innings was the main culprit), it is just something that struck me as ridiculous.

KC Kingdom Player of the Game

We will go with Jarrod Dyson from a shallow options pool. His big hit tied the game and gave everyone hope they could pull out the game.

Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

• James Shields – 12
• Alex Gordon – 15
  
• Wade Davis – 5
• Lorenzo Cain – 8
• Luis Mendoza – 3
• Billy Butler – 11
• Ervin Santana – 10
• Miguel Tejada – 5
  
• Jeremy Guthrie -6
• Eric Hosmer – 13
• Chris Getz – 3
• Mike Moustakas – 6
  
• Aaron Crow
• Jarrod Dyson – 4
  
• David Lough – 8
• Alcides Escobar – 5
• J.C. Gutierrez
• Jeff Francoeur
• Bruce Chen – 5
• Salvador Perez – 8
• Will Smith – 2
  
• George Kottaras
• Louis Coleman – 2
  
• Bruce Chen – 2
  
• Justin Maxwell – 2
• Greg Holland -2
  
• Danny Duffy – 2
  
• Luke Hochevar

The Mariners

Rookie phenom Taijuan Walker pitched brilliantly for 4 of his 5 innings. Outside of the Royals big 4th, he only issued one walk…that’s it – no hits and no runs.

Kendrys Morales was the hitting star, going 2-5 with the game winning dinger in the 9th. Former Royal Raul Ibanez was the only other Mariner was 2 hits.

Up Next

These two teams wrap up the series Thursday afternoon at 1:10. Jeremy Guthrie (13-10, 4.08 ERA) will try to give the home team a series victory against Joe Saunders (11-13, 4.92) who takes the bump for the visitors.

AL Central Notes

Detroit Tigers (81-59): Just write this one off. The Red Sox blasted the Tigers out of the water by the score 20-4. The Sox scored 9 (1 unearned) off Rick Porcello over 5 innings, and 11 more off 3 different relievers over 3 frames. Boston had 19 hits and 4 walks on the night.

Cleveland Indians (74-65): Yan Gomes had 3 hits and 3 runs produced in the Tribe’s 6-4 win over the Orioles. Cleveland leap frogged over Baltimore in the wild card chase and are only 3.5 out of a berth.

Minnesota Twins (61-77): Despite home runs by Alex Presley and Ryan Doumit, the Twins dropped a 6-5 decision to the Astros. Trevor Crowe delivered a walk off RBI single in the 9th to take out the Twins.

Chicago White Sox (56-82): The Sox scored 4 in the 8th inning but still came up a run short in a 6-5 loss to the hot Yankees. Gordon Beckham, Avisail Garcia, and Marcus Semien, making his MLB debut, each had 2 hits.