Rasmussen, Rays relievers remove Royals rallies in 3-0 romp

Runs remain hard to come by at home.

The Kansas City Royals saw their offensive struggles continue as they were shutout by Drew Rasmussen and four Tampa Bay Rays relievers in a 3-0 loss at Kauffman Stadium tonight.

Both teams broke up the no-hitter in the first inning but lost their respective baserunners — Yandy Díaz made an ill-fated attempt to advance to second on a wild pitch, while Maikel Garcia attempted to steal immediately after being bonked on the head by a pickoff throw and was gunned down on an absolutely perfect throw by Danny Jansen.

Tampa Bay drew first blood in the second. With one out, Christopher Morel hit a grounder to Bobby Witt Jr. and got an infield single out of it. Josh Lowe hit another grounder that a good defensive second baseman probably would have fielded, but this one snuck into center, moving Morel to third. José Caballero followed with a perfect bunt up the first base line, scoring the run while also reaching base himself. The Rays got their fourth consecutive single when Chandler Simpson hit a ball to Witt that he probably should have thrown to third. Witt instead threw to first and Simpson easily beat it to load the bases. Michael Wacha’s first pitch to Jansen was in the dirt and went to the backstop, allowing another run to score. Jansen then put down another bunt toward the first base line, which the Royals managed to record an out on but brought across a third run.

At this point the game was basically over as Kansas City had only managed more than three runs in five out of 23 home games since the beginning of May. Nevertheless, I have a responsibility to continue watching and writing in case of a miracle. The Royals finally had something going when Jonathan India led off the fourth inning with a walk. Drew Rasmussen retired the next two hitters before Vinnie Pasquantino ripped a single into right to put runners on the corners. Salvador Perez popped out to end the inning. This would end up being Kansas City’s only at-bat with multiple runners on base.

We got to the middle of the fifth with the score still 3-0. Wacha was hanging in there. Sure he’d allowed seven hits, but most of those were groundballs that either found holes or became hits thanks to the batters’ speed. Jac Caglianone made a nifty diving catch on a liner to his left to end the top of the fifth — good thing he caught it as another run almost certainly would have scored otherwise. The halfway point of the game arrived in just one hour and eight minutes. It felt much longer than that, but perhaps that’s because this writer is cheap and had the air conditioning turned off. The thermostat read 87 when I walked to the fridge to grab another beer. I returned just in time to see Caglianone get rung up on a pitch well above the strike zone. Kansas City did not get a baserunner in the fifth inning.

Rasmussen gave way to the bullpen after five innings and 62 pitches. Witt seemed happy to see a new arm, ripping a double over the left fielder’s head with one out. He would be stranded at second base. In the top of the ninth, Rex Hudler claimed that people call Taylor Clarke “Clarkie” because his surname ends with an “e”. Nothing of interest happened in this game between these two events. Two hours and eight minutes after first pitch, we headed to the bottom of the ninth inning with the Rays still ahead 3-0. Pete Fairbanks had to pitch with a runner on thanks to an error behind him, but otherwise retired the side without incident to end the game.

The loss drops Kansas City to 38-42. They will try to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

Michael Wacha: 6.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 0 HR

Drew Rasmussen: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 0 HR

Bobby Witt Jr.: 1-4, 2B

Josh Lowe: 2-4, R