Another lineup cursed to die; Tigers beat Royals 6-1

Record: 8-12 (L4)

W: Reese Olson (2-1 | 4.50 ERA)
L: Michael Lorenzen (1-3 | 4.57 ERA)
S: Tommy Kahnle (3 | 1.29 ERA)

For the most part, this Royals loss was no better than the other five within this past week. They didn’t score much and they didn’t look like they had a confident approach. They fell behind in counts often and made a lot of feeble flyouts. Yet, the Royals actually managed to string together a few hits more than once every three innings or so, but they still couldn’t bring runners in.

This doesn’t change the fact that the Royals played badly today, but it should at least be mentioned that the umpiring was disagreeable and seemed to skew towards the Tigers’ favor. Bobby Witt Jr. got several inaccurate strike calls against him, with his second at bat being called so unfavorably that it forced him to swing and reach and thus ground out.

Bobby would take another incorrect strike call in his last plate appearance of the game, where by that point the Royals dugout had been arguing with the umpires so often that hitting coach Alec Zumwalt was ejected from the game. The previous inning, Hunter Renfroe seemed to run out a double play but was called out instead. The Royals had already lost their challenge, but for some reason they weren’t granted a Crew Chief Review instead like usual. For the record, Drew Waters would then ground out up the middle immediately afterwards, but it was just another example of the umpiring being weirdly difficult tonight.

That 8th inning debacle ruined the only successful Royals rally of the night, as an RBI single by Maikel Garcia would be their only victory with runners in scoring position. The Royals overall went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position tonight. The only positive takeaway from the offense tonight is that they had the most hits of any game since their last win on Sunday.

Michael Lorenzen pitched about as you’d expect; he had some wild misses all over the place but largely got the job done until the fifth inning when the Tigers were able to overwhelm him a second time. Kerry Carpenter doubled and Zach McKinstry walked to start the inning, but Spencer Torkelson, their best hitter, grounded out. Riley Greene, who’s been the team’s coldest hitter, instead managed to drive a single into the corner to hand the Tigers their fourth run.

Evan Sisk had his “second debut” as the broadcast joked about; he relieved Lorenzen in the fifth inning and was able to end it without issue. He would stay in the game through the seventh that started well with a quick Trey Sweeney groundout, but the Tigers immediately threatened again. The next two batters reached base and then pulled off a double steal; Salvy tried to stop one but failed and the Royals’ challenge also failed. Sisk then locked in and struck out the next two hitters, even after falling behind in the count for one of them.

Chris Stratton also pitched in this game.

The Tigers were able to silence the already-quiet Royals with a two-inning save. It was another disappointing game to start a series that the Royals really ought to not lose. The protests against Alec Zumwalt are getting louder.

This article’s title is based off of Lorna Shore’s ‘Cursed to Die’.

Image Credit: Paul Sancya (Associated Press/AP)