Royals Streak at Four Losses After Dull Loss to Pirates

The Pirates completed their sweep. A.J. Burnett dominated the Royals. The offense was completely listless for essentially two-thirds of the game. The defense was predictably sloppy. The Royals feebly attempted to rally from a three-run deficit but came up a run short.

This is Kansas City baseball.

Down 3 - 2 in the top of the ninth, Alcides Escobar led off the inning with a single. Rather than simply take second base on a team that has caught four base-runners stealing all year, Ned Yost had Jarrod Dyson bunt Escobar over to second base to put the tying run in scoring position. Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a walk in which he actually looked at a ball down that appeared to hit the strike zone for what should have been a called strike three, but Alex Gordon struck out swinging, and Johnny Giavotella went down looking on three Jason Grilli offerings in which the bat never left his shoulder.

Four losses in a row now for the hapless Royals. At least there's a new episode of Veep on tonight.