ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ For the second night in a row, all the offense the Royals could muster at Tropicana Field came via home run.
Whit Merrifield banged one into the left-field foul pole on Wednesday night to lead off the fourth inning, cutting the Royals' early deficit in half. Four innings later, Hunter Dozier struck a two-run blast to center field to get the Royals back within one run of a tie.
But after Alcides Escobar hit a ground-rule double with one out to keep the inning alive, no one else could build off the momentum. Merrifield and Alex Gordon struck out in back-to-back at-bats, ending the threat and ultimately costing the Royals in a 6-3 loss to the Rays.
Between inopportune strikeouts and ineffective batted balls, the Royals have stranded 37 on base in their last six games.
The offense has spoiled several gems from the starting staff, including Jakob Junis' efforts on Wednesday. He was saddled with his 12th loss of the season despite allowing just two earned runs among the four he was charged over 52/3 innings of work.
Junis wasn't without fault, as the Rays knocked nine hits against him, three of them for doubles.
But on a night where his slider dived so often out of the way of bat paths he induced 12 swinging strikes, and on a night where a defensive lapse by Merrifield made way for two unearned runs to score in the sixth, Junis deserved a better fate.
It seemed for a moment in the second inning that luck might fall Junis' way. The Royals had successfully challenged a call that Willy Adames was safe at first base, giving them a double play to erase a leadoff hit. Junis had only thrown two pitches in the inning and already gotten two outs. He seemed destined to escape the inning unscathed.
But catcher Michael Perez squared up a sinker and sent it up the middle for a single, right fielder Carlos Gomez ripped the fourth pitch he saw up the third-base line where a diving Dozier couldn't stop it from becoming a double and both scored on a right-field single from Brandon Lowe.
Junis retired 11 of the next 14 batters he faced before allowing two base runners in the sixth inning. The second runner scored even after Junis turned the ball over to reliever Tim Hill, who had only allowed 11 of 39 inherited runners to cross the plate this season.
The sequence provided the Rays just enough cushion to keep a 4-3 lead as they headed into the bottom of the eighth inning. They shoved away the Royals' chances at a rally by plating two runs off Jason Hammel.
Rosell Herrera, who hit a two-out single off closer Sergio Romo in the ninth, tried to score from second base when Ryan O'Hearn beat out a throw to reach first on an infield. But he ran into the final out at home plate and the Royals fell to 38-89 on the season.
