Royals bats continue to be lifeless in 4-1 loss to Orioles

The Royals wasted six brilliant innings by Danny Duffy by mustering little offense, with Duffy eventually blowing a lead in the seventh in a 4-1 loss to Baltimore in the series opener. Baltimore starter Mike Wright, who entered the game with a 5.96 career ERA in the big leagues, held the Royals to just five hits over seven innings of work, allowing just one unearned run. The Royals drop their fifth in a row and fall to 11-20 on the road this year.

Early on, the story was how well Danny Duffy looked. The left-hander has been impressive since returning to the rotation, and tonight his changeup was working well, inducing eight whiffs from Orioles hitters on 20 pitches. Duffy retired 18 of the first 22 hitters of the game, allowing just a pair of infield singles, a hit batter, and another single in his first six frames.

However the Royals offense was once again lifeless, and the game remained scoreless through six. Finally, the Royals scratched together a run to take a lead. After back-to-back singles by Paulo Orlando and Cheslor Cuthbert, Jarrod Dyson hit a potential double play ball. However second baseman Jonthan Schoop accidentally spiked the ball into the arm of Cheslor Cuthbert, allowing the ball to get away and Orlando to score from second on the error. Cuthbert had to leave the game, but Jeffrey Flanagan reports the injury is not serious, and Cuthbert should return to action tomorrow.

Duffy came on again in the seventh with a 1-0 lead, having only thrown 70 pitches. The Orioles hit a lot of home runs in Camden Yards and they showed that in the seventh. Mark Trumbo hit his league-leading 19th home run to tie the game, and two batters later, Matt Wieters hit a solo home run to give Baltimore the lead. After a hit and a walk, Adam Jones would double home another run before Jonathan Schoop was thrown out at home to end the inning. Just like that, a brilliant Danny Duffy inning was once again foiled in the late innings.

Yeah the 1st inning (or 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) hasn't been an issue for Duffy pic.twitter.com/CjeWjrDcEH

— Shaun Newkirk (@Shauncore) June 6, 2016

The Royals are hitting just .149 as a team over their last four games with ten walks and five extra-base hits. The offense is in dire straits right now, and if the Royals weren't feeling the loss of Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas, they certainly are now. If they can't get right in hitter-friendly Camden Yards, with a guy named "Mike Wright" on the mound, then when will they get right?