Listless Royals lose to Rays in 5-1 snoozefest

Yikes

For eight innings, the Kansas City Royals had as many errors (two) as they did hits (two). For five innings, the Royals failed to hit a ball out of the infield.

Yes, the Royals eventually scored a participation run in the ninth inning off a Maikel Garcia double and a Vinnie Pasquantino single. But the Tampa Bay Rays jumped off to an early two-run lead in the second inning, which is all they needed, but they kept adding insurance runs to put the contest out of reach.

I am writing this after coming back from the game. Friends of ours got some tickets from their workplace in section 130—the nicest seats I had watched a game from in a long time. And let me tell you: the stadium was relatively packed considering it was a Tuesday. Unfortunately for us and the other 20 some odd thousand fans, the Royals gave us not a whole lot to root about.

This recap would be longer but it would also be sadder. I would post some highlights, but this was the sole Royals post on social media tonight:

Bad defense, bad offense, mediocre pitching. I didn’t even mention that Rays pitcher Taj Bradley took a perfect game until the sixth inning, when designated hitter John Rave walked and Jonathan India doubled to end Bradley’s perfect game and no-hit bid in the same frame. Bradley entered this game with a 4.95 ERA on the year. That went down.

The Royals are now 38-41 on the year. They have not won a game at home in June. It is June 24. There’s a lot of baseball to be played this year, but the clock is ticking and teams are surging ahead of the Royals in the standings.