KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Royals were set to face Texas starter Yohander Mendez on Wednesday in a series finale — until a late night out in Kansas City on Monday caused a demotion to Triple-A Round Rock, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Rangers started journeyman Austin Bibens-Dirkx in his place. The Royals made him look like Austin Kluber-Sale.
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In a 3-2 loss to the Rangers, the Royals mustered just two runs on seven hits, stretching their losing streak to nine games. They made their case as the worst local nine in the game. They are now just 2-16 in the month of June. They has won just once since June 2 — a 2-0 victory over the A’s on June 9. At 22-52, they are 30 games under .500 for the first time since they ended the 2009 season at 65-97.
“It’s been tough,” said Royals starter Jakob Junis, who lost his fifth straight start after yielding three runs in six innings. “Not only personally, but as a team. We’re grinding through it; we’re trying everything we can to win games. And something is going to fall through eventually.”
On Wednesday, Junis permitted his 19th homer of the season, a solo shot by Rougned Odor in the sixth inning. The 19 homers allowed tied Texas’ Bartolo Colon for the most in baseball. With the offense scuffling, the solo homer served as a death knell.
“It’s definitely been a struggle for me,” said Junis, who is 5-8 with a 4.43 ERA. “I’ve given up a lot of home runs this year. So I’m very conscious of that. I’m trying to keep it in the ballpark, because when I do, that’s when I have the most success. I can’t really pinpoint on one exact thing.”
So cue the numbers, the nightly evidence from an anemic offensive unit that has trended downward since losing outfielder Jon Jay in a trade on June 6 and outfielder Jorge Soler to injury the next week.
The Royals’ offense, of course, had trouble scoring runs before, a fact that manager Ned Yost pointed to earlier this week. Still, the June output has been particularly troubling. The unit has scored just 2.1 runs per game in 18 games. They have been outscored 102 to 38. They are batting .188 as a team and slugging .297.
And when the Rangers recorded the final out in the ninth on Wednesday night, the club had matched a club record by scoring four runs or fewer in their 14th straight game. The last American League club with a longer streak was the 2010 Mariners, who did it in 15 straight.
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“I see quick at-bats at times,” Yost said. “Which is a sign of pressing instead of letting the at-bat come to them and systematically working the count and looking for a pitch.
“We’re up swinging early in the count.”
The urgency has manifested itself in other ways. The latest loss ended when Hunter Dozier attempted a delayed steal against Rangers reliever Jake Diekman and catcher Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the bottom of the ninth.
Kiner-Falefa is a backup infielder who was making his first career start at catcher. The Royals sought to force the issue and put a runner in scoring position with two outs. The idea may have been audacious; the execution was a flop. Dozier was thrown out easily, ending the threat.
“Perfect time to try that play right there,” Yost said, before later citing Kiner-Falefa’s inexperience. “In case you probably haven’t noticed, we’ve had trouble bunching some hits together. It’s a chance to maybe hopefully catch them by surprise and get into scoring position.”
With the left-handed Diekman on the mound, and the delayed steal called, Dozier said he attempted to see Diekman commit to home before taking off. His jump, however, was a little sloppy.
“They put it on, and we tried to execute it,” Dozier said, “and he made a good throw.”
It felt like a fitting end to an 0-8 homestand, which represented the franchise’s worst since an 0-10 run at Kauffman Stadium from April 13-23 in 2012. That was the season the club christened the theme as “Our Time,” an ode to a coming All-Star Game and a young and talented roster. There were no such expectations as this group convened at spring training in February. But club officials did not anticipate a failure of this magnitude.
The Royals entered the 2018 season expecting to transition into a rebuilding phase that would last three to four seasons, if the plan was executed correctly. But general manager Dayton Moore said this week that he did not expect the bottom to fall out until maybe next season.
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Perhaps that was wishful thinking, but in the moments after another loss on Wednesday, their sixth straight series defeat, the club was on pace for a franchise-record 114 losses. That would represent the fifth most losses since 1990 — and the most since the 2003 Tigers lost 119.
So, yes, the chase for the worst record in baseball is on. Just more than an hour after Kansas City’s loss, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Washington Nationals to improve to 21-51.
The Royals were just percentage points ahead of the Orioles, and fading fast.
(Photo by Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)
