If I told you that Kris Medlen would walk two batters in the first and two batters in the second with Felix Hernandez pitching for the other side, my guess is you would have shrugged and chalked it up as another bad game in what is becoming one rough road trip.
Except that very believable story line hardly describes what happened Friday night to the Kansas City Royals.
As a team, the Royals allowed one hit. Sure, they combined to issue seven walks, but King Felix walked three and only struck out four on the other side of the ledger. Kansas City rapped out six hits, took three walks (one each by Escobar and Perez – if you can’t win a game when those two…oh, nevermind), stole three bases and benefited from two Seattle throwing errors that gave baserunners an extra 90 feet.
So, how again is it that they lost?
The Royals lost when Kris Medlen’s no-hitter was broken up in the sixth by a Seth Smith home run. The Royals lost when they were unable to score Eric Hosmer (who is apparently going to hit in every game this year) from second with nobody out in the second. They could not score Escobar from third after he took a two out walk, stole second and was given third on a Seattle throwing error. They lost when Alex Gordon grounded into an inning ending double play with two on in the fourth. They gave away an out by bunting Salvador Perez to second after he led off the fifth with a walk and was then erased on a groundout and on and on. The offense, facing a pitcher who has allowed one hit with runners in scoring position this season, was 0-11 in that situation tonight.
It wasted a fantastic recovery by Kris Medlen, whose four walks in the first two innings all came after he had two strikes on the hitter. Over fifty pitches after just two innings, Medlen suddenly became dominant and efficient for three innings before being touched by Seattle’s only hit of the night. He was followed by the good versions of both Danny Duffy and Joakim Soria, but their efforts were not so great as to remove Seattle’s run from the board.
To add to the frustration, the ninth inning saw Eric Hosmer single to lead off. He was followed by Kendrys Morales who missed a home run down the right field line by mere feet before striking out. Alex Gordon, who has started an entirely new consecutive game strikeout streak, struck out, bringing up Salvador Perez.
Perez ripped the first pitch just foul (maybe) down the third base line, then came back and drove the second pitch to the center field wall, where Leonys Martin caught it as he ran into the barrier. Three hard hit ‘almosts’ in one inning with the tying run on base.
Maddening. Frustrating.
The Royals, who spent the first two weeks of the season finding ways to win games they might not have had any business winning, most certainly lost a game on Friday they had no business losing.