If you're looking for a game to encapsulate all that's gone wrong lately for the 2021 Kansas City Royals, Thursday's 15-1 loss to the Red Sox in Boston might do the trick.
The overall numbers were ugly in the Royals' ninth straight loss: Boston had 17 hits, drew four walks and scored runs off all five KC pitchers. The Royals' run scored after a two-out error in the ninth, with Jarrod Dyson collecting an RBI double.
The loss ended a 1-9 road trip for the Royals, who remain in last place in the American League Central with a 33-46 record. This is the second-longest losing streak of the season for the Royals, who went winless in 11 games in May. They've lost 21 of their last 25.
Royals manager Mike Matheny said there is no easy way to turn things around.
"You fight. You fight. That's it," Matheny said. "Those are the things that we can control. We control how we think about this game and we think about this team, and we think about each opportunity we have and then how we go and work. ... You fight your way through this. No one's going to throw out a hand or a life preserver.
"We've got to dig deep and realize that what we're feeling right now is not what we want to feel. How we're playing overall, the results are not what we want, so get back to what we control and that's a winning process of how we work, prepare and compete. So there's no magic to this, as it's not easy, and it gets harder because it compounds. Keep going, keep fighting."
If Thursday's game had been a boxing match, it would have been over early.
Starting pitcher Kris Bubic overcame a rough start after a stern message from Matheny in the first inning. Bubic settled down a bit after that, limiting Boston to one run on a leadoff homer by Enrique Hernández, but it was all Red Sox from the fourth inning on.
Boston clubbed two more home runs in a four-run frame and knocked Bubic from the game. All three home runs were hit off Bubic's change-up, which is one of the better pitches in his arsenal.
"I actually felt pretty decent today especially with the fastball/curveball," said Bubic, whose ERA is up to 4.99. "That was the most I threw my curveball pretty much all year. Just continue to get hurt by the change-up. The curveball is good, but the change-up ... it's going to be tough going forward if that pitch continues to be like it has, especially the last couple of weeks, because all four hits (were) on change-ups (Thursday), three homers on change-ups.
"It's kind of been the story the last couple weeks, especially."
The Red Sox scored four again in the fifth inning, this time against relief pitcher Ervin Santana, with two of them coming in strange fashion. Boston had a 7-0 lead with the bases loaded and two outs when first baseman Danny Santana hit a short pop-up that landed on the infield dirt in front of second baseman Whit Merrifield, allowing a run to score.
The exit velocity screamed doinker: 43.7 mph.
An even stranger play followed. With Boston's Connor Wong at the plate, Ervin Santana stepped on the rubber and simply dropped the ball. That was a balk, and Hunter Renfroe jogged home to make it 9-0.
In the sixth inning, the Royals failed to turn an inning-ending double play when Hanser Alberto, who had replaced Merrifield, dropped a ball after getting the force-out. Xander Bogaerts followed with a single and Rafael Devers mashed a three-run homer to make it 12-0.
The big things went the way of the Red Sox, but Boston also took advantage of a number of small mistakes by the Royals and caught some breaks.
With Thursday's defeat, the Royals gave an unintentional nod to the glory days of 2014-15. This year's team opened the season with wins in 16 of their first 25 games. Since then, their record is 17-38.
