Lorenzen lashed late, lineup lumped LOB in 4-3 loss

The offense went 2-10 with RISP and stranded nine runners.

The Kansas City Royals held a lead for most of tonight’s game against the Houston Astros before surrendering a couple late runs to fall 4-3 at Daikin Park.

Kansas City had a chance to give Colton Gordon a “welcome to the show” moment in the first inning of his major league debut. Bobby Witt Jr. smoked a liner into left-center that one-hopped the wall. Witt considered holding up at second before putting on the accelerator and sliding into third base with a triple. He would be stranded though when Vinnie Pasquantino was retired 1-3 and Salvador Perez struck out.

Fortunately, Maikel Garcia made up for it in the second when he smashed an absolute pie of a breaking ball over the Crawford boxes to lead off the inning, giving the Royals a 1-0 lead. Gordon retired the next two batters but then let up singles to Hunter Renfroe and Drew Waters. That turned over the lineup, bringing up Jonathan India. He redeemed himself for taking a called third strike in the first inning by lacing one into left field that one-hopped the wall, scoring Renfroe and pushing Waters to third. Witt got ahead 2-0 before being intentionally walked, but Pasquantino grounded out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Michael Lorenzen was allowing hard contact but making it work with some help from his defense. Through two outs in the fourth, he had faced the minimum thanks to three double plays, two of the groundball variety and one strike-em-out-throw-em-out. Houston finally got to him when Isaac Paredes launched a homer over the scoreboard to make the score 2-1.

The Royals responded in the next inning. Pasquantino battled for nine pitches to draw a leadoff walk and was soon balked to second by Gordon. Perez bounced out, after which Gordon was pulled from the game. Shawn Dubin entered to face Garcia. Garcia poked what looked like a routine groundball up the middle, but the baseball gods were smiling down on him — the ball clanked off the second base bag and into left field, allowing Pasquantino to score and Garcia to cruise into second with a double. Dubin retired the next two batters, but Kansas City led 3-1.

On the other side, after the Paredes home run, Lorenzen went right back to getting outs. He retired the next five batters in order before Mauricio Dubón doubled down the left field line. Lorenzen’s very next pitch resulted in the same thing as Jeremy Peña ripped one to switch spots with Dubón and make the score 3-2. Lorenzen managed to set down the next two batters to keep the Royals in front, completing the sixth inning having thrown just 67 pitches.

He’d stay on the mound until getting to one out in the eighth. Zach Dezenzo singled the other way before Dubón hit the exact same batted ball that he’d hit two innings prior with the same result. Waters played it poorly off the wall, allowing Dezenzo to score from first and tie the game. That ended the night for Lorenzen, who ceded the mound to Carlos Estévez. He got ahead of Peña 0-2 before throwing a high-and-tight fastball — a good pitch, but Peña was able to keep his hands in and rip it into left field, scoring Dubón and giving Houston a 4-3 lead.

With a lead in tow, the Astros turned to Josh Hader to close things out in the ninth. He retired the first two batters without incident but Witt worked a tough walk to keep Kansas City alive. Unfortunately, Pasquantino could not come up with the big hit, lining out to center to end the game.

The loss drops the Royals to 25-20. They will have the day off tomorrow before beginning a showdown with their cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals on Friday at Kauffman Stadium.

Michael Lorenzen: 7.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR

Colton Gordon: 4.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR

Maikel Garcia: 2-4, HR, 2B, R, 2 RBI

Jeremy Peña: 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI