Royals Go 'Yarbs' Twice in 8th Inning, Knock Off Rays 6-3 to Even Series
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Baseball is a game perfectly suited for second-guessing, and there was plenty of that in the eighth inning of Tampa Bay's game with the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.
The Rays had erased a three-run deficit thanks to a couple of plays from newcomer Roman Quinn, and got back in the game thanks to three shutout innings from struggling reliever Ryan Yarbrough.
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash opted to send Yarbrough back out for the eighth inning in a tie game, but the move backfired. Yarbrough hung a curveball that light-hitting Michael A. Taylor knocked into the left field seats and then, three batters later, Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-run homer to left.
The long balls gave the Royals a 6-3 win to even the series. For Yarbrough, his record dropped to 0-5 on the season, and the Rays, who had a slew of fresh relievers ready to go in the bullpen, are now 0-9 in the last nine games that Yarbrough has appeared in.
Those are brutal numbers, which begs the question: Rays manager Kevin Cash, why was Yarbrough sent back out there to pitch the eighth inning of a tie game?
"I liked the matchup with all the lefties they had loaded up there. The one righty that they pinch-hit with early (Taylor), it came back and bit us,'' Cash said. "It looked like he got a backyard breaking ball and put a good swing on it.
"If they would have pinch-hit for another lefty, we had (Ryan) Thompson ready there. If we needed a big strikeout against a lefty, the option would have been (Brooks) Raley. We liked that Yarbs was in there. It just didn't work out.''
Luis Patino got the start for Tampa Bay, but he was hit hard in his four innings of work. It was his second start back after missing three months with a left oblique strain, and he's struggled both times.
He was in trouble from the start, but made enough good pitches to limit any massive damage.
In the first inning, he gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases, but got second baseman Whit Merrifield to ground out to third to end the threat. Patino got into big trouble in the third, giving up hard-hit doubles to MJ Melendez, Bobby Witt Jr. and Merrifield, with a walk to Andrew Benintendi tossed in.
The Royals got him for three runs in the third and threatened again in the fourth with a one-out walk and single, but Patino got to fly balls to end the inning — and his night. He allowed three runs, with seven hits and three walks. He threw 72 pitches, but 31 were balls.
The Rays went the first five innings without a hit against Royals starter Brady Singer, their 2018 first-round pick who was a College World Series hero for the Florida Gators. He was unhittable, striking out 10 Rays hitters in those first five innings.
The Rays' first hit broke one of baseball's unwritten rules. Tampa Bay newcomer Roman Quinn, who was getting his first start in right field since being signed on Thursday, dragged a bunt down the first base line and beat it out. He was serenaded with boos from Royals fans for breaking up the no-hitter with a bunt. Yandy Diaz grounded into a fielder's choice but went to second on a throwing error, and then he scored when Luke Raley singled to right to make it 3-1.
They tied the game in the seventh after Taylor Walls led off with a single, chasing Singer, who finished with a career-high 12 strikeouts. Francisco Mejia singled as well and then, with two outs Quinn hit a ball into the right-field corner, scoring Walls and Mejia to tie the game at 3-3.
Yarbrough pitched scoreless innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh, allowing the Rays to come back. He got a break in the bottom of the seventh when Randy Arozarena threw out Hunter Dozier at home after a Whit Merrifield single to left field.
Yarbrough was upset with the outcome, because he felt like he had pitched well enough in those first three innings to help the Rays get back in the game. How it ended, though, was bothersome with the two home runs.
"We've been really mixing in the breaking ball more, especially to righties, and you've got to give Taylor credit for that,'' Yarbrough said. "We went hard in the pitch before, but I just kind of got a little too much of the plate with the curveball. And with Witt, I was just trying to get ahead with a first-pitch cutter and he got a lot of it.
"It stinks how you finish, because I really felt like I was in a good groove and we were in a good spot. That's just two pitches, but it's definitely tough and it will sit with you a while.''
The win spoiled Quinn's two-hit debut for the Rays.
"I just thankful to be back on the field again. Unfortunately we didn't get the W, but it was good to be back out there,'' Quinn said. "I put a good swing (on a 2-0 pitch for the triple) and I was thinking three all the way.''
Quinn had no problem with bunting to break up Singer's no-hitter. Neither did Cash, not at all. It was still a close game, Quinn said, and he was just trying to get something going for his new teammates.
"It was a good situation to do that, to get something going for everybody else,'' Quinn said. "I was trying to provide a spark with my speed. Like I said, we tied the game back up. Down 3-0 in the sixth inning, it doesn't affect that.''
The two teams meet again on Sunday at 2:10 p.m. ET. Jeffrey Springs, who arrived in Kansas City on Saturday, is scheduled to come off the disabled list (calf) and pitch the series finale.
VIDEO: Watch Ryan Yarbrough's postgame press conference
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.