Royals lose to better team again

By the third inning, the Cleveland Indians were beating the Kansas City Royals 6-1. It was just one of those games where a very bad team (the Royals, on pace for a franchise-worst 107 losses) was defeated by a good one (the Indians, who are on pace for 89 wins). Therefore, it was also just one of those games where, well, you don’t need to know everything. Ultimately, the Indians beat the Royals 9-5.

The game was interesting for precisely one inning—the seventh—when the Royals loaded the bases and scored a pair of runs to cut the lead from 7-3 to 7-5. But a few hard hit balls went right to defenders, and the chance for a full rally died.

The lead-up to that point was pretty simple: Jake Junis, an average pitcher at best, wasn’t good, while Trevor Bauer, who has been an above average pitcher for years now, was good. Junis lasted into the fifth inning and was replaced with Jake Newberry.

The Royals had struck against Bauer already. In the second inning, Jorge Soler clobbered a baseball for his 23rd dinger to tie the game.

And in the fifth inning, Adalberto Mondesi blasted a two-run home run in his first game since half a month ago:

In the aforementioned seventh inning, Martin Maldonado, Billy Hamilton, and Whit Merrifield led off with singles. Mondesi hit one in with a sac fly, and then Alex Gordon singled another. Then, with runners at the corners, Hunter Dozier crushed a line drive to the glove of shortstop Francisco Lindor and Jorge Soler crushed a line drive to straightaway center field. Both turned into outs.

And with the Kansas City bullpen up, well, you can predict how that went. Jake Diekman and Jorge Lopez pitched a combined two innings and gave up six baserunners and two runs. But by that time, the game was out of hand.

Enjoy baseball! Woohoo!