|
Indians beat Royals
KC drops 12th straight
yahoo.com
CLEVELAND- Kansas City manager Ned Yost insists the Royals are
playing too well to have lost 12 straight.
The Royals matched their third-longest losing streak in team history
Tuesday night when Cleveland’s Derek Lowe allowed one run over six
innings in the Indians’ 4-3 win.
‘’We were one hit shy, but golly we were into it to the very end,’’
Yost said.
Kansas City scored once in the ninth inning and had the go-ahead run at
the plate against closer Chris Perez, who got his seventh save when he
got Jeff Francouer to bounce into a game-ending forceout.
‘’One hit away, that seems to be the name of the game right now,’’
Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas said.
‘’It looks bad, 12 in a row, but we’re playing good baseball, playing
the game the right way. We just need to find a way to get that one hit
that breaks it for us.’’
The Royals also lost 12 straight in 1997 and 2008. Kansas City lost 13
straight in 2006 and had a team-record 19 consecutive losses in 2005.
‘’We’ll break through,’’ Yost said. ‘’I find it hard to believe we’ve
lost 12 in a row, the way we are battling to the very end. That’s a
good sign with a young team.’’
The Royals have been outscored 73-44 during the streak, though five of
the losses have been by one run.
Cleveland built upon a recently completed 7-2 trip by returning to
Progressive Field and earning their second home win in six games. They
did it with starting center fielder Michael Brantley resting a sore
right wrist until he was used as a defensive replacement. Manager Manny
Acta said right fielder Shin-Soo Choo left in the ninth with a tight
left hamstring and will be evaluated Wednesday.
Lowe (3-1) gave up eight hits and struck out five. The right-hander
used a good sinker to get nine outs on grounders as he bounced back
from a 4-1 loss at Seattle in which he walked six without a strikeout
on April 18. In addition, the pitcher’s home in Florida was recently
burglarized. Among items taken were his 2004 World Series ring, earned
with the Boston Red Sox. The losses were estimated at $90,000.
‘’It was obviously a tough week,’’ Lowe said. ‘’Anytime you have
something like that happen and not being there, it’s tough. That’s what
law enforcement is there for. Major League Baseball knows about it. The
good thing is there’s nothing you can’t replace. Luckily, no family
members were there.’’
Jack Hannahan had a two-run double in Cleveland’s three-run fifth
against Jonathan Sanchez (1-1), who struggled to command his fastball.
Beforehand, the Royals continued to try anything to get out of their
funk. On Monday, they vented frustrations in a closed-door pregame
meeting in which voices were raised in anger. Before opening a
three-game series in Cleveland, players gathered around a clubhouse
television to play a baseball video game.
That didn’t help either, though Yost liked the idea.
‘’It was good to see them relaxing and enjoying themselves,’’ Yost
said. ‘’That’s a good sign. Our kids need that right now.
‘’When they step on that field, they’re playing the game extremely
hard. They’re all trying to break out of this slump. We’re trying to
get them to try easier. We get runners on base and our numbers drop
pretty dramatically.’’
Mitch Maier had an RBI single for Kansas City in the fourth and doubled
home a run in the eighth. Overall, the Royals went 4 for 13 with
runners in scoring position. The Royals are 13 for 73 (.178) in that
situation over their last eight games.
Sanchez hit Indians leadoff batter Jason Kipnis in the hand with his
fifth pitch. Kipnis eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Carlos
Santana to put Cleveland ahead 1-0.
On April 14, Sanchez hit Choo with a pitch. Indians starter Jeanmar
Gomez retaliated the next inning by plunking Moustakas, leading to a
brief bench-clearing scuffle. Gomez drew a five-game suspension and was
suspended. Hannahan and Acta also were ejected and fined.
A year ago with San Francisco, Sanchez broke Choo’s left thumb with a
pitch. The Royals acquired him in a trade for outfielder Melky Cabrera
in November.
Sanchez walked the bases loaded in the second, but got Kipnis on a
first-pitch popout, followed by a double-play grounder by Asdrubal
Cabrera.
‘’We’ve seen that before, Sanchez getting out of bases-loaded jams,’’
Yost said. ‘’He had no fastball command, but a good breaking ball. He
starts to command that fastball and he’s going to be in great shape.’’
The left-hander also loaded the bases with walks in the fifth. One run
scored on a sacrifice fly by Shelley Duncan. Hannahan followed with a
double to right-center to make it 4-1 and finish Sanchez.
Sanchez walked seven over 4 2-3 innings, allowing four runs and four
hits. He threw 115 pitches, only 56 for strikes.
Kansas City closed to 4-3 in the ninth. Chris Getz doubled and later
scored on a groundout by Billy Butler.
|
|
|
|
