ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ There was no strategic plan to mine one organization for talent, yet as the offseason continued and the winter months passed, the Royals kept acquiring former Chicago Cubs.
They traded closer Wade Davis for Jorge Soler, coveting the power and controllability of the 25-year-old outfielder. They signed right-hander Jason Hammel, a free-agent starter who won 15 games and posted a 3.83 ERA last season. In the opening days of spring training, they opted to dip into the waters once more, signing left-hander Travis Wood, a reliever who registered a 2.95 ERA in 2016.
All three players had played roles on a World Series champion, the first on the North Side of Chicago in 108 years. All three came packaged with questions and flaws, like most baseball players do. Yet, all three seemed perfectly capable of providing some level of value in 2017.
Thirty-three games into the season, the collection of Cubs expats has one thing in common. They are still searching for the magic they found inside Wrigley Field. The latest evidence came Wednesday night, in a 12-1 demolition at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
Hammel was knocked around for six earned runs and 13 hits in seven innings, his ERA spiking to 5.97. Soler opened his first week as a Royal with zero hits in 15 at-bats _ before an RBI double in the ninth. And one night earlier, Wood surrendered two runs in three innings, continuing a string of suspect relief work.
"I was aggressive in the zone," Hammel said. "Just up in the zone. A couple of times there I was behind in the count, (threw) too hittable of a pitch. They did a good job not missing when I made a mistake. That was about it."
The performances have not been front and center in the Royals' ugly 12-21 start. The losing has required a more concerted collective effort. Yet Hammel, Wood and now Soler have played vital roles, offering moments like Wednesday night.
After two straight victories over the Rays, the Royals absorbed a genuine beating. The Rays' Logan Morrison and Rickie Weeks Jr. struck for back-to-back homers in the third. The Royals had little recourse against Rays starter Chris Archer, who dazzled over eight scoreless innings. Tampa Bay's Colby Rasmus offered a punctuation mark in the eighth, cranking a grand slam against reliever Peter Moylan.
"These games actually are easier to take than losing games 1-0 or 3-2," Yost said.
The 28-year-old Archer had entered the day 0-4 with a 5.63 ERA against Kansas City in his career. For one night, he exacted a measure of revenge, finishing with 11 strikeouts.
As an announced crowd of 9,320 piled into this weathered dome stadium, the most dramatic moment of the night came when Archer plunked Royals catcher Salvador Perez with one out in the seventh inning. In the moments after, Archer gestured toward home plate and seemed to apologize for the errant pitch. But Perez, who was celebrating his 27th birthday, took issue with the beaning, jawing directly at Archer as he slowly moved down the line toward first base.
"He's going to throw at me because I have two hits against him," Perez said. "I think he was mad. But I don't think that's the right way, you know?"
Archer told reporters there was "nothing malicious" about the pitch. Yost said it was "awful strange that as good as his command was that one got away from him."
Two innings earlier, the two players had exchanged a glance after Archer struck out Brandon Moss to end the top of the fifth. Perez, who opened the inning with a single, appeared to say something as he trotted back toward the dugout.
The game, however, had been lost in the early innings. Hammel surrendered a run in the first and three more in the third. Rays first baseman Morrison, who grew up in the Kansas City metro area, homered for a second straight night, crushing his ninth home run of the year to center in the third. The Rays turned the game into a rout with two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth.
Hammel was left in to clean up the mess and soak up innings, saving a bullpen that had been taxed by a 12-inning victory the night before. The Royals had summoned relievers Seth Maness and Al Alburquerque earlier in the day, designating infielder Christian Colon for assignment and optioning right-hander Jake Junis to Omaha. But Yost saw little purpose in wasting his bullpen as Archer mowed down the offense.
Two steps forward in Tampa Bay, and now one step back.
"We needed innings tonight, first and foremost," Hammel said. "So if there's any consolation, that was one."
