No sugarcoating this one.
Tough night for the Kansas City Royals taking on the Cleveland Indians as they went down in defeat 19-1. Already holding a 3-0 lead going into the fourth inning, Cleveland scored 10 runs in the fourth and continued to pile it, pounding out 20 hits in the win.
In what proved to be an omen for the evening, starter Kyle Davies exited after getting just one out in the first inning. After 21 pitches and only throwing six for strikes the Tribe had the bases loaded before Davies was pulled from the game with a sore right shoulder. He will be having an MRI this evening and then will be looked at again on Tuesday.
Nathan Adcock entered to take the reigns and promptly struck out Travis Hafner, before Orlando Cabrera singled and drove in two runs giving the Indians a 2-0 lead after the first inning.
Adcock tossed 1.2 innings before giving way to Vin Mazzaro who had a historical night that everyone associated with the Royals would love to forget. Mazzaro allowed 14 runs on 11 hits, while also walking three. He amassed 77 pitches in just 2.1 innings of work. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Mazzaro is the first pitcher in modern history to allow 14 or more runs in under three innings (1900 or later).
The Royals scored their lone run in the bottom of the fourth as Alex Gordon singled and scored on a Billy Butler ground out. At the time it was 13-1 and the Indians would go on to score six more times between the fifth and sixth innings. In all the Royals used seven pitchers on Monday evening.
Davies took the loss and sits at 1-6, while Indians starter Josh Tomlin improved to 5-1 on the season.
Kansas City is now just 2-6 against Cleveland this season as the Indians are now 25-13, while Kansas City is back to .500, sitting at 20-20. Carlos Carrasco (1-2 5.29 ERA) will start for Cleveland tomorrow, while the starter for Kansas City will be Sean O`Sullivan (2-2 3.79)
As the Royals had to pitch 8.2 innings of of the bullpen, we likely we see some roster moves forthcoming int he upcoming days. It will be interesting to see if Kansas City calls up a reliever or two or possibly decides to bring up young starting pitcher Danny Duffy.