Kansas City loses a heart breaker in extra innings 8-5

The Kansas City Royals squared off against one of the best in the MLB. Jacob DeGrom is a dominant pitcher and Kansas City gave him trouble. However, they were not able to put up many runs. They did knock him around. DeGrom gave up seven hits and two runs. DeGrom did show off his skill set, going seven innings and striking out nine. 

The starting pitching for the Royals did not have a great day but was good enough to keep Kansas City in the game. The Rangers did score in the second inning to take an early one-run lead.

Kansas City responds quickly. Bobby Whitt Jr. knocks in Kyle Isbel with some aggressive base running. A soft liner in between the first and second baseman. 

Rangers regained the lead with a double hit to right field. The ball rolled all the way to the wall they added. The Rangers added a sac fly and an RBI to give them a 3-1 lead. The Royals and Rangers went and forth to have the game 4-3 to start the eighth inning.  

The Royals got a scoring opportunity late in the game. In the top of the eighth inning, Kansas City loads the bases with one out. They did not fully capitalize. They could put one run on the board but with no outs in the inning and the bases loaded Kansas City should have put more on the board.

This has been an issue with the offense this season. Before this game, the Royals were near the bottom of the league with runners in scoring position. Kansas City’s offense is not clutch. With runners in scoring position, they have a higher chase rate and whiff rate. They also have a lower overall batting average and a lower walk rate. In this game, Kansas City was 4-20 with runners in scoring position. 

Royals manager Matt Quatraro said the Rangers deserve credit for being able to avoid the big inning late in the game 

“If you capitalize and put a crooked number up it makes it a lot easier but you got to give them credit for pitching out of it,” Quatraro said. 

Despite the odds, Kansas City was able to score in the ninth. They tied the game up in the top of the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings.

Michael Massey had four opportunities to score a run. All four times he came up to bat there was a runner on third base and less than two outs. He finally capitalized on it with a sac fly and an RBI in extra innings to take the lead. Once again the Royals should have been able to get more.

Kansas City did take the lead in the top of the tenth inning the Rangers would score the tying run and win on a walk-off three-run home 

There were some good defensive plays made by both Whitt Jr. and Kyle Isbel. Vinnie Pasquantino, Whitt Jr, Kyle Isbel and Franmil Reyes all got on base multiple times. Pasquantino got two multi-base hits.

Kansas City finishes its final game against the Rangers tomorrow, with a 7:05 first pitch. They look to avoid being swept for the second time this season.