The Royals offense reverts to form, they lose to the Padres 5-1

My kingdom for a hit with runners in scoring position!

In the top of the third inning, down 1-0, Drew Waters stepped to the plate against Dylan Cease. He singled to right. John Rave came to the plate and laced a double into the gap in right center, Waters scored from first. That flipped the lineup back over and gave the Royals’ top three hitters an opportunity to drive a run home and take the lead with a runner in scoring position and no one out.

Jonathan India popped out to the catcher. Bobby Witt Jr. grounded out to second. Maikel Garcia walked and stole second, but Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out to end the threat. And that was when most Royals fans realized that the fantastic offense they’d seen in the past four days was gone. The Royals hit no home runs in this one and were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. That’s no way to win a baseball game.

Noah Cameron fought his control in this one, but hung tough to only allow two runs in 5.1 innings. That raised his ERA to 2.08 on the season. Dylan Cease, on the other hand, fought his control at least as hard as Cameron did, but thanks to the Royals consistently being behind his fastballs, managed to pitch 6.2 innings of one-run ball.

Taylor Clarke bailed Cameron out of the sixth inning. As news was spreading across social media that the US was bombing Iran, Tatis decided to drop his own demoralizing bomb following two hard-hit singles and put the game even further out of reach. It was his first in more than 100 plate appearances, so that’s cool for him, I guess. Royals fans know the Padres didn’t need it, but it sure didn’t make watching the rest of the game more enjoyable.

If you’re looking for positives, Jac Caglianone had a good night for those who worry about his chase. He walked twice and was hit by a pitch. He grounded out in his only official at-bat. The first plate appearance, in particular, was excellent. It saw him work the count back to full after falling behind and then take a really tough pitch for ball four.

The Royals, unlike four of the past five Sundays, will be attempting a series victory tomorrow afternoon instead of merely trying to avoid a series sweep. That’s a positive, too.

The game will start at 3:10 CDT, thanks to being on the West Coast. Seth Lugo will go for the Royals. Randy Vázquez will go for the Padres. It won’t matter much who is pitching for either side, though, unless the Royals’ offense reverts back to how they were playing most of this week instead of how they played tonight.