Miscues sink Royals as tough stretch kicks off (2024)

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals are in as tough of a point in their schedule as it gets right now, with Friday beginning a 20-game stretch against teams currently holding a playoff spot. More than a few times, Royals players and coaches have insisted that they’ll be able to handle opponents if they just play clean baseball and their brand of baseball -- good pitching, good defense and an offense fueled by their big boppers in the heart of their order.

Too many times Saturday night, that was not the case, and it led to the Phillies’ 11-2 rout over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, setting up Sunday’s rubber match. The loss dropped Kansas City to two games behind Cleveland for first place in the AL Central, now tied for second place with Minnesota, which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.

“Some of it was us, some of it was them,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “They beat us up pretty good. But we did not do the things that we can control as well as we can do them.”

Through five innings on Saturday, Royals starter Brady Singer had allowed two runs against the relentless Phillies offense. He had given up some hard contact, but for the most part staved off tons of damage. In the fifth inning, Trea Turner reached on an infield hit and scored on Bryce Harper’s double to the right-center field wall. Instead of hitting shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. as the cutoff man, center fielder Kyle Isbel threw it wide to second baseman Michael Massey. With Turner’s speed, the Royals didn’t have a play at the plate.

“That would have been an interesting play if we got the ball in Bobby’s hands,” Quatraro said. “... You always try to hit the lead guy because the ball’s in the air less time. It’s not going to die going to the trail guy. You have the trail guy there for a reason, and sometimes it does work out, but we always want to hit the lead guy.”

But that was nothing compared to what happened in the sixth inning.

With the Phillies leading 2-1, Nick Castellanos reached first base when his fly ball to right field dropped in between Massey and Hunter Renfroe. Massey was calling for the ball, but thought he heard Renfroe call for it at the last second, so he pulled back and watched it drop into the grass.

“I’ve got to do a better job of listening for him, and then once I called it, he’s going to back off,” Massey said. “He did the right thing. I’ve got to make the catch.”

Castellanos advanced to third when a grounder from Bryson Stott took a high bounce off the lip of the infield grass and out of reach of Massey’s glove.

“Tailor-made [double play],” Massey said. “I don’t know if it hit something or what. It just kicked right. Tough break.”

J.T. Realmuto cleared the bases with one powerful swing, yanking a 3-0 sinker on the inside part of the plate to left field for his first of two homers on the night.

“A little bit of frustration, but I’m not mad at anybody,” Singer said. “Defense has been incredible this whole entire year. We’re here because of what they’ve been doing. … My job is to limit the damage there, and obviously I didn’t do that.”

The Royals can’t expect themselves to be perfect every night -- no team can -- but they have a hard time overcoming mistakes in games like Saturday. Small mistakes turn into big moments this late in the year.

“That’s what good teams do,” Massey said. “They take advantage of your mistakes and make you pay for it. So it was a tough inning. Got to clean it up.”

Offensively, Witt, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez went a combined 1-for-11, which is going to happen at times, but they only had one at-bat with runners in scoring position (Perez with Pasquantino on second in the first inning.) Massey and Freddy Fermin provided the only other production.

In the third inning, Dairon Blanco was caught stealing third base to end the inning with Witt batting. Blanco is as speedy as it gets and has 23 stolen bases this year, but the final out of an inning cannot be made at third base with an American League MVP candidate at the plate.

“That’s completely on me,” Quatraro said. “I need to put the red light on there, and I didn’t. We need to let Bobby hit there. But that’s my responsibility.”

Chances at a Royals comeback got slimmer and slimmer when the Phillies kept piling on against struggling veteran relievers Chris Stratton and Will Smith.

“Every reliever that comes in a game, regardless of the score, that’s their goal is to keep the game exactly where it is,” Quatraro said.