CLEVELAND -- To begin a road trip that swings through two contending cities as they fight for their own postseason lives, the Royals were routed, 10-2, by the Guardians on Monday night at Progressive Field.
Kansas City did not record a hit until the eighth inning. Its starter did not make it out of the fourth inning, and its pitching staff allowed a season-high-tying 10 runs (done five times). It had a position player pitching in the eighth inning.
And the Royals (73-71) dropped back in the American League Wild Card race, sitting three games out of the third AL Wild Card spot behind the Mariners (76-68), who won their series opener against the Cardinals on the West Coast.
Now two teams sit ahead of Kansas City in that chase for Seattle: The Rangers (75-70) are 1 1/2 games back as the first team out, and the Guardians (73-70) are 2 1/2 games back of the final spot and a half-game ahead of the Royals.
Kansas City will need to win the next three games of this four-game set to win the season series over Cleveland and secure the head-to-head tiebreaker for postseason implications.
“It’s a tough game, regardless of home, road, first game, last game,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “We got beat up pretty good. The best part about it is it’s over. And we can get back out here tomorrow.”
The game was separated by the fourth inning, when starter Ryan Bergert, pitching just 50 miles north of his hometown of Canton, Ohio, exited after just 3 1/3 innings and a career-high eight runs allowed. The outing was the worst of Bergert’s time with the Royals, but he’s been remarkably consistent since they acquired him from the Padres at the Trade Deadline. In six starts for Kansas City, the rookie had allowed two or fewer runs and pitched into the sixth inning in each of them.
Monday’s 11-hit, eight-run clunker wasn’t what Bergert or the Royals have gotten used to since he joined the organization. And as the game separated, the team was still trying to avoid history: Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi, who entered the series opener with a 4.78 ERA, no-hit Kansas City through seven innings.
Second baseman Michael Massey ended the no-hit bid with a single into left-center to begin the eighth inning. The relief of avoiding history was not all that relieving in the context of the rest of the game.
“For the no-hitter purpose,” Massey said. “But obviously, not a good night for us.”
It’s not as if the Royals were overmatched. Cecconi registered just three whiffs on 36 swings. Kansas City smoked the ball; of the 14 balls that were hit 100 mph or more on Monday, Royals batters had eight of them. Jac Caglianone -- whose two-run single in the ninth plated the only runs -- worked a walk in the second inning, and Carter Jensen added a walk in both the third and the fifth.
It hardly got Cecconi out of rhythm. The Royals made 12 outs on three or fewer pitches against the right-hander. He threw 100 pitches (58 strikes) in eight scoreless innings. The Guardians' defense made excellent plays, especially second baseman Brayan Rocchio.
“I think the hitting guys did a great job preparing us,” Massey said. “It was just that he had his stuff tonight. He didn’t miss a lot of balls right over the middle of the plate. Lived on the corners, changed speeds. You hit mistakes, and you take advantage of mistakes. Unfortunately, tonight, he didn’t make many.”
Caglianone added: “That’s kind of the beauty of baseball. You can do everything right but still have nothing to show for it.”
Hard-hit or not, the Royals made too many outs with not enough results in between. And results are what matter more than anything right now. Kansas City has scored three runs or fewer in nine of its past 10 games and has scored 30 runs (averaging three runs per game) in that stretch -- 11 of which came on Saturday against Minnesota.
Where the Royals stand with 18 games left on their regular-season schedule is on everyone’s mind. The club has to make sure that doesn’t add more pressure on the field so that games like Monday don’t spill over to the next.
“It’s certainly more stressful,” Massey said. “It’s part of the job. We’d rather have it that way than not, because the opposite is that we’re not in it. So it’s tough. You’ve got to battle, and you’ve got to find a way to put that on the back burner and go out and do the little things. Tonight, we didn’t do a great job of that. But [we’ve] got another opportunity tomorrow.”