Three Things to Take Away From the Royals' 6-5 Loss to the Tigers
The Kansas City Royals blew an early lead and lose 6-5 as they are swept by the Detroit Tigers for the second time this season.
With tonight's loss, the Royals have dropped 11 of their last 12 games and have lost their sixth-straight game.
Kansas City falls to 30-37 on the season while the Tigers advance to 29-39. Here's what I took away from the game.
Adalberto Mondesi makes his presence known.
Adalberto Mondesi made his first start since being reinstated from the Injured List and wasted no time announcing himself as he crushed a home run in his first at-bat. The ball went an estimated 445-feet according to Statcast. The home run came in the second inning and gave the Royals an early 1-0 lead. Mondesi would also make a nice defensive play in the fourth inning to help the Royals turn two and get out of a jam. It was has been another abysmal stretch for the Royals, it was good to see Mondesi back on the field.
Carlos Hernandez looked sharp.
After starting pitcher Brady Singer was removed from the game in the third inning due to right posterior shoulder tightness, Carlos Hernandez was called upon to eat up innings. Hernandez entered the game with an ERA of 8 and had allowed an earned run in four of his five outings in 2021. Hernandez would throw three scoreless innings allowing just two hits and striking out four while hitting 100 mph on the radar gun. Even with an off-day on Thursday, Hernandez did a good job of saving the bullpen.
The "go-to-guys" out of the bullpen struggled.
After Hernandez exited in the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead, it looked like the Royals were in good shape with a relatively rested bullpen. Instead, Greg Holland, Scott Barlow, Jake Brentz and Josh Staumont combined for three innings pitched five earned runs, seven hits and four walks. Holland took the brunt of it as he allowed three of four batters to reach in the seventh and took the loss. While it would be easy to blame just Holland, if one of the other three performed to the standard they have set this season the Royals may have won this ballgame. All three phases need to be playing quality baseball if the Royals want to get out of this funk and the bullpen let the Royals down today.
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Christopher Tenpenny is an alumnus of Missouri Western State University and graduated in 2020 with a convergent journalism degree. Christopher is currently the sports editor at the South Cass Tribune in Harrisonville, Missouri and a contributor to Inside the Royals. His favorite Royals memory is Alex Gordon’s home run in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series. His favorite barbeque joint in Kansas City is Gates.