KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The stint lasted 38 pitches before Royals right-hander Jakob Junis finally set himself free, but its consequences traced to just one. From 60 feet, 6 inches away, the baseball left his right hand with a slider's grip, statistically one of the top out pitches in the league.
But in this instance, it traveled all of about 55 feet.
As the ball planted into the dirt in front of home plate, a walk to force in a run, Royals manager Ned Yost slapped a piece of paper onto the dugout railing in frustration, perhaps aware of what waited on the horizon.
The Indians broke the game open with a five-run third inning, beating the Royals 9-5 on Tuesday night in the opening game of the last series at Kauffman Stadium before the All-Star break.
The Royals (29-57) manifested a comeback attempted that ultimately fell incomplete, recovering from a six-run deficit to pull the go-ahead run to the plate in the seventh inning.
For naught.
Adalberto Mondesi homered in his return from the injured list, and Jorge Soler blasted team-leading No. 23, but Junis departed before the end of the fifth inning, seven runs charged to his name, six of them earned.
The destruction came in the third, much of it self-inflicted. See the Kipnis plate appearance. With the bases loaded and one out, Junis worked ahead in the count 0-2. But seven pitches later, he offered Kipnis a free base and Cleveland a free run. They swiped four more before the inning concluded. Junis needed 38 pitches to record three outs.
In all, he threw 108, giving up six hits and walking two. Junis has a 5.91 ERA over his past six starts. Only one hit Tuesday produced extra bases _ a Jake Bauers double that scored two _ but the inning included back-to-back walks and an error.
The Royals cut a 7-1 fifth-inning deficit to 7-5 in the seventh inning, with hits from Martin Maldonado, Billy Hamilton, Whit Merrifield and Alex Gordon. Two runners occupied the bases when Hunter Dozier and Soler lined out to end the threat there.
The comeback notion started in the fifth, with Mondesi's two-run skied home run into right, the Royals' second bomb of the evening. Earlier, Soler visited the top shelf of the left-field fountains, his 23rd home run of the season arriving on a solo shot in the second inning.
He took time to admire his work. The ball ranged 451 feet, traveling 109.5 mph off the bat, per Statcast.
Dozier led off the sixth inning with the Royals' 27th triple of 2019, but he was thrown out trying to stretch an extra base out of an errant throw. The aggression cost the Royals a run after Soler singled in the next at-bat.
The Royals added Mondesi back to the roster before Tuesday's game. Mondesi missed the previous two weeks with a mild groin strain. To make room for him on the 25-man roster, they optioned Humberto Arteaga to Triple-A Omaha.
The bullpen also encountered one change _ Jake Newberry joined the group, and Scott Barlow was demoted to Omaha.
