KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ A day after a ball popped out of an outfielder's glove, prolonging a streak of failure, Royals manager Ned Yost sat in a dugout and re-lived it all. "I went home mad," he said, then detailed the toll of 10 consecutive losses.
Hours later, the Royals supplied one more example of baseball's built-in emotional wave. Because as bad as it's been for as long as it's been, they sure picked a heck of a way to bust out.
The first six batters the Royals brought to the plate scored, sparking an 8-1 victory Friday against Cleveland, Kansas City's first win since the opening series of the season.
If you're going to end a skid, there are few better ways to do it. They left the game in little doubt from the opening inning in front of 11,950 at Kauffman Stadium.
Let's reconstruct it: Whit Merrifield led off with a single; Adalberto Mondesi tripled; Alex Gordon homered; Jorge Soler walked; Ryan O'Hearn singled; Hunter Dozer singled; and after back-to-back outs, Chris Owings doubled home the fifth and sixth runs. It's the most productive inning of the season and the most impactful first inning since last May. Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco lasted only 28 pitches before Cleveland manager Terry Francona offered him relief.
The Royals weren't done, either. Well, more specifically, Gordon wasn't done.
He had four hits. He followed the first-inning jack with a double in the second and another double in the fourth that he nearly stretched into a triple, which would have left him just a single shy of the cycle. He picked up that single in the eighth to complete his 13th career four-hit game.
It came on a special night, too. Gordon was wearing a yellow armband, "Charlie" written on it, as a tribute to a kid battling cancer supported by his Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Charlie underwent an operation Friday, according to a team official.
What a stark contrast from the feeling overriding Yost a day earlier. On Thursday, the Royals were on the verge of ending the losing streak at nine, but the potential final out of the game didn't stick in center fielder Billy Hamilton's glove. The Mariners tied the game on the play, which resulted in Hamilton being carted off the field, and then won in extra innings.
A subsequent MRI test showed Hamilton escaped serious injury, but the losing streak remained.
Early Friday, it was clear that wouldn't last, either. After losing his franchise-record 31-game hitting streak Thursday, Merrifield's first swing resulted in a single down the first-base line. The initial six hitters scored. Merrifield had three hits. Mondesi has four triples this year.
On the mound, starter Brad Keller (2-1) pitched himself out of trouble. Even after a shaky start. Eight pitches into the game, Royals catcher Martin Maldonado emerged from his squat and trotted to the mound to visit with Keller. Six of those eight fell outside home plate Paul Emmel's strike zone.
The next three struck out Jose Ramirez, the top threat in Cleveland's lineup. And Keller promptly struck out the next two hitters to end the first inning. He set a new career-high with 10 strikeouts in the game. Sidestepping the occasional issue with his command, Keller allowed just one run in 6 2/3 innings. He departed the mound to a standing ovation after a career-high 118 pitches.
His only hiccup? Tyler Naquin tagged him for a solo home run in the second inning. It's the first homer Keller had allowed in 54 innings, the longest running streak in the majors according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It was a no-doubter _ a 420-foot shot down the line.
