CLEVELAND _ This was Saturday: Danny Duffy crawled into a tube back in Kansas City as his left elbow barked. Mike Moustakas returned to the lineup after resting his sore right knee for two days. Salvador Perez continued to play through manageable discomfort in his right side.
The Royals are a hobbled unit, in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Their staff leader (Duffy) landed on the disabled list on Saturday and underwent an MRI on his sore left elbow. Their would-be home run king (Moustakas) is stuck on 35 while battling a nagging knee injury. Their record on the season is back to .500 after a 4-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
For a second straight day, the offense was handcuffed by a young Indians starter with limited major league experience. On this night, it was Cleveland's Mike Clevinger, a Stevie Ray Vaughan clone who shut down the Royals' offense with a mix of 92-mph fastballs, sliders and change-ups.
The Royals were shut out for a second straight game. The scoreless performance represented the Royals' 12th of the season, the most in baseball this year. When the Indians closed out the victory in the top of the ninth, the scoreless drought had reached 25 innings, the longest stretch in the league this season.
The Royals had few opportunities. And the Indians' sensational defense surfaced when they did. In the top of the fifth inning, Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield singled with two outs and Lorenzo Cain followed by ripping a line drive to deep left-center. Indians rookie center fielder Bradley Zimmer, the younger brother of Royals prospect Kyle Zimmer, galloped back and made a spectacular diving catch, saving at least one run in a scoreless game.
In that moment, Royals starter Jason Hammel had twirled a perfect game through four innings, and he would take the performance into the sixth before things fell apart. Hammel surrendered a single to Zimmer before allowing a two-run homer to Indians catcher Roberto Perez.
Royals manager Ned Yost would stick with Hammel in the bottom of the seventh. And the Indians would tack on two more runs on solo shots from Edwin Encarnacion and Carlos Santana.
All season long, Hammel has tired in the sixth and seventh innings. On Saturday, he took a perfect game into the sixth and his pitch count remained manageable. But once he surrendered the lead, Yost did not appear in a hurry to go to the bullpen. Perhaps he sensed the offense would not threaten over the last few innings. Perhaps he just wanted to save the bullpen another inning.
Whatever the case, Hammel had solved the Indians across three starts this season, posting a 3-0 mark while yielding seven runs in 182/3 innings. The success included a six-inning, three-run performance in Hammel's last start, a 7-4 victory on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.
On this night, he was undone by the sixth and seventh innings and an offense that has gone silent in two nights in Cleveland.
