Kansas City Royals bats betray Ventura, Royals lose

Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Rookie Yordano Ventura pitched a quality start, but Kansas City Royals hitters only managed to score 1 run Saturday night in the 3-1 loss to Seattle.

The Royals managed only 4 hits on the night, with no walks. They were fortunate to score even one run, which came on Alcides Escobar‘s sacrifice fly in the 3rd following Mike Moustakas‘ triple.

Ventura gave up a 2-run home run to Justin Smoak the following half inning, and another dinger to Dustin Ackley in the 6th.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals failed to even get a runner past 2nd after the 2nd inning. Erkel was more likely to score with Laura than the Royals were late Saturday night.

The Royals fell to 17-19 on the year, and 6 games behind the Tigers in the Central.

On the Mound

Yordano Ventura was more good than great Saturday night. He gave up 6 hits, 4 walks, and recorded only 3 strikeouts in 6.1 IP. He frequently pitched out of trouble when he wasn’t surrendering home runs.

Ventura falls to 2-2 on the season with a still-excellent 2.34 ERA.

Tim Collins relieved Ventura in the 7th with one out and finished out the inning without any further damage.

Kelvin Herrera finished up in the 8th with a clean frame that included 2 strikeouts.

At the Plate

Mike Moustakas’ triple in the 2nd led to the only Royals run of the game. He went 1-3 with a run scored. Moustakas is still hitting a pathetic .147/.215/.321. He’s hitting so poorly, I’m starting to miss Jeff Francoeur.

Billy Butler went 2-4 with two singles.

The only other Royal to get a hit was catcher Sal Perez, who went 1-4.

Last night, the Royals offense was about as exciting as a generic Katherine Heigl romantic comedy: looks pretty good but there’s no action.

This and That

Johnny Giavotella started his second straight game in place of Omar Infante at 2nd base. Infante remains on a day-to-day basis with his sore back.

Billy Butler and 1st base coach Rusty Kuntz exchanged some heated words in the top of the 9th after Butler nailed a shot down the 3rd base line with two outs. Butler made a hard turn around first presuming he could go for two, but had to scramble back to first after the Mariners quickly relayed the ball to 2nd baseman Robinson Cano.

Butler told Dick Kaegel of KCRoyals.com:

"“It was one of those things where it was down the line and you’re assuming two,” Butler said. “Really, at that moment, you can’t hear anybody. He’s doing his job, I’m doing mine. I respect Rusty more than anybody — he’s the best baserunning guy I’ve ever been around. So if he’s yelling at you, you’re probably doing something wrong. I was just lucky enough to not be that wrong, where I couldn’t get back.”"

KC Kingdom Player of the Game

I am tempted to give the award to 1st base coach Rusty Kuntz for warning Billy Butler to get his fat butt back to 1st base, giving the Royals at least one last chance to tie the game with a home run in the 9th. Unfortunately, Kuntz is not a player.

Mike Moustakas wins by default for actually doing something useful at the plate one of the few times this season. He’s going to need to pile up a lot more useful days in hurry if he wants to keep his job at 3rd base.

More from Kansas City Royals

The Mariners

Mariners starter Chris Young ran his record to 3-o with a 2.63 ERA after pitching 8 shutout innings while allowing only 3 hits. He walked none and struck out 3.

Fernando Rodney closed out the ninth after giving up the two out single to Butler for his 11th save.

Up Next

The Royals will try to earn a split of the 4 game series Sunday by sending Jeremy Guthrie (2-2, 3.91 ERA) to the hill against Seattle’s Roenis Elias (3-2, 3.27 ERA). Gametime is 3:10 CST at Safeco Field.

Box

Royals Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	SO	BA	OPS
Nori Aoki RF	4	0	0	0	0	.275	.667
Eric Hosmer 1B	4	0	0	0	0	.317	.786
Billy Butler DH	4	0	2	0	0	.244	.613
Justin Maxwell PR	0	0	0	0	0	.138	.391
Salvador Perez C	4	0	1	0	0	.260	.737
Alex Gordon LF	3	0	0	0	1	.252	.667
Johnny Giavotella 2B	3	0	0	0	1	.182	.348
Lorenzo Cain CF	3	0	0	0	1	.333	.758
Mike Moustakas 3B	3	1	1	0	0	.147	.536
Alcides Escobar SS	2	0	0	1	0	.268	.692
Team Totals	30	1	4	1	3	.133	.329

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2014.

SF: A Escobar (1, off C Young).
TB: M Moustakas 3; B Butler 2; S Perez.
RBI: A Escobar (11).
Team LOB: 3.
With RISP: 0 for 0.
Fielding
DP: 1. J Giavotella-A Escobar-E Hosmer.

Mariners Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OPS
James Jones CF	2	0	1	0	2	0	.462	1.101
Brad Miller SS	4	0	0	0	0	2	.164	.500
Robinson Cano 2B	3	0	2	0	1	0	.296	.726
Corey Hart DH	4	1	1	0	0	1	.217	.690
Justin Smoak 1B	4	1	1	2	0	1	.246	.736
John Buck C	4	0	1	0	0	1	.259	.667
Dustin Ackley LF	2	1	1	1	1	0	.245	.679
Michael Saunders RF	1	0	0	0	0	0	.222	.610
Stefen Romero RF	2	0	0	0	0	0	.209	.586
Willie Bloomquist 3B	3	0	0	0	0	0	.186	.414
Team Totals	29	3	7	3	4	5	.241	.782

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2014.

HR: J Smoak (5, off Y Ventura, 4th inn, 1 on, 0 outs to Deep RF); D Ackley (2, off Y Ventura, 6th inn, 0 on, 2 outs to Deep RF).
TB: D Ackley 4; J Smoak 4; R Cano 2; J Jones; J Buck; C Hart.
GIDP: S Romero (1).
RBI: J Smoak 2 (24); D Ackley (14).
2-out RBI: D Ackley.
Team LOB: 6.
With RISP: 0 for 3.

Royals Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit
Yordano Ventura, L (2-2)	6.1	6	3	3	4	3	2	2.34	96
Tim Collins	0.2	1	0	0	0	0	0	9.00	10
Kelvin Herrera	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	1.59	10
Team Totals	8	7	3	3	4	5	2	3.38	116

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2014.

Mariners Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	SO	ERA	Pit	Str
Chris Young, W (3-0)	8	3	1	1	3	2.63	93	60
Fernando Rodney, S (11)	1	1	0	0	0	2.30	13	9
Team Totals	9	4	1	1	3	1.00	106	69

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2014.

Balks: None.
WP: Y Ventura (2).
HBP: None.
IBB: None.
Pickoffs: None.

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