TORONTO _ Six days ago Danny Duffy stood at his locker at Kauffman Stadium and shouldered the loss in a no-decision. It was his fault, he said, that the Royals hadn't won any of his starts to that point.
"We could easily be 6-4," Duffy said. "That's a teller."
For the first time in this young, weather-beaten season, Duffy could not take any blame for a Royals loss.
On Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, in the second game of a doubleheader borne of ice-induced roof damage, Royals reliever Brian Flynn was dealt the L in the Blue Jays' 5-4 walk-off victory in 10 innings.
Luke Maile had the game-winning hit, a single up the right side with the bases loaded and one out.
Combined with an 11-3 loss in the opener, the Royals (3-12) have lost seven games in a row.
Before the bullpen melted down for the second time in one day, Duffy pitched his first scoreless start since May 18 of last year. He struck out eight batters, issued three walks and permitted two hits in six innings. He threw 100 pitches in his longest outing of the season.
Duffy avoided the big inning that sidetracked each of his previous starts. When Duffy got close to allowing the Jays to burst through what had been a 2-0 lead in the third, he induced a ground ball double play up the middle to end a bases-loaded threat.
He retired six of the seven batters he faced before turning the game over to Justin Grimm for the seventh inning.
Duffy was dealt a no-decision for a second start in a row.
For the second time on Tuesday, the Royals bullpen relinquished a lead. Grimm loaded the bases with three consecutive walks to start the seventh and Rule 5 acquisition Brad Keller could not bail him out of trouble. The Blue Jays scored four times on three straight hits before Keller recorded the first out of the inning.
Rookie Tim Hill came in after him, and he recorded two outs and pitched a perfect eighth inning.
The seventh-inning disaster was the nightcap's mirror image of the sixth inning in Game 1.
That one started innocently enough with the Royals trailing 5-3. Cheslor Cuthbert over-threw to Lucas Duda. The ground ball ended up grazing the padding of some extended seating on the first-base side and skipping into the crowd. It allowed Kevin Pillar to reach first base, and eventually set up a three-run jack by Randal Grichuk.
But the inning didn't end there. With no outs recorded, Blaine Boyer gave up his second single of the inning. That base runner _ and the two others he allowed prior to Burch Smith entering the game with one out _ later scored with ease. Smith allowed a sacrifice fly ball to Yangervis Solarte, who clubbed a two-run homer into the left-field upper deck in the first inning, and served up a two-run double to Pillar, who was the 10th of 11 batters that appeared in the inning.
The events that transpired marked yet another meltdown for Boyer. He's allowed more than three runs in four of his six appearances, with 18 runs (14 earned) overall. Batters are averaging .500 against him.
Royals manager Ned Yost said late last week that Boyer, who signed a minor-league contract during the offseason and earned a spot on the 25-man roster out of spring training, needs to finish off his fastball with more precision. Boyer couldn't do that consistently on Tuesday.
"He's struggling right now. It's mostly location," Yost said. "Gets ahead. ... The pitch they hit for the three-run homer _ it wasn't a horrible pitch, but it just had too much of the plate."
The inning negated what had started to resemble a laser show. Mike Moustakas launched a 421-foot homer to right-center field, moments after a "Moose, you look hungry" taunt rang out over the din of a sparse crowd. Duda followed with a screaming home run that registered an exit velocity of 114.1 mph and banged off the facade of the upper deck in right field.
Yet the runs didn't provide much new life for the Royals. They were eclipsed in the fifth inning, when starter Eric Skoglund, who dug himself out of a 2-0 first-inning hole, gave up three runs and five hits and lost his 3-2 lead.
"After (the first) I was able to settle down," Skoglund said. "I thought me and Gally (Royals catcher Cam Gallagher) were on the same page for the whole game. They were just able to execute on that fifth inning. That's what hurt us a little bit."
The situation in Toronto might not have unraveled so quickly in the first game had Whit Merrifield, Moustakas and Duda cashed in on a prime opportunity in the top of the fifth. Gallagher reached base on a catch bobbled by Pillar in center field and was credited with a double. Gallagher moved to third when Jon Jay bunted to the left side of the infield for a hit.
But the next three batters were set down by Blue Jays starter Jaime Garcia with little fanfare.
The Royals have been plagued by inefficiency with runners in scoring position all season. In the previous five games, all losses, they hit 9 for 43 in such situations. They were 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven on base in Tuesday's afternoon game.
The issues continued in the evening. The first three batters of the second game reached against Toronto starter Joe Biagini, but only Jay crossed home plate when Duda was hit by a pitch. Merrifield and Moustakas were forced out at home after Cuthbert and Ryan Goins each hit weak ground balls. Abraham Almonte stranded Duda at third base.
Almonte, a switch-hitter, later made up for it when he crushed a lead-off home run to center field in the sixth inning and extended the Royals' lead to 3-0.
Still, the Royals left 12 on base.
And the bullpen couldn't mask the mistakes. Alcides Escobar tried to absolve Grimm and Keller of their mistakes, lofting an 89-mph fastball left up near the letters of his jersey for his first home run of the year to tie the game at 4-4 in the eighth inning.
Royals relievers have now allowed 42 runs (36 earned) in 48 innings. They allowed 11 runs in all on Tuesday.
