Salvy homers again in 4-3 loss to M’s

Quality start from Singer and home runs from Salvy and Taylor wasn’t enough as the Royals drop the final game of the 4-game series in the Pacific Northwest.

Marco Gonzales put himself in trouble early with a single with one-out by Nicky Lopez, then two batters later walked Edward Olivares on a competitive 9-pitch AB. Unfortunately, the inning ended with a well executed back pick by Gonzales to get Lopez out at second.

Brady Singer looked to have a 1-2-3 inning, but unfortunately for the second straight start his defense let him down. Singer retired Crawford and Haniger quickly. But then long time Mariner, Kyle Singer lined a ball to right field. The topspin caused Olivares to miss it for an error; Seager made his way to second base. The next batter, Ty France grounded a ball up the middle to score Seager for the first run of the game.

Benintendi and Dozier were quickly retired in the top of the second, but Michael A. Taylor extended the inning lining a ball passed the leaping JP Crawford. Ryan O’Hearn battled against Gonzales until finally he lined out to center to end the inning.

In the bottom half, a lone walk to Kelenic was the only baserunner for the M’s.

Gonzales got Rivera and Merrifield to have bad swings for easy back-to-back outs. However, Lopez continued to see the ball well with a hard ground ball that hit off of Gonzales’ glove thumb and trickled away for an infield hit. However, Salvy popped up to the middle of the infield to end the top of the third.

In the bottom of the third, Singer got a quick out then plunked Haniger on a 1-2 pitch. The wild streak for Singer continued as he walked Seager putting runners at first and second with one out. A tremendous slider to France caused him to hit a weak fly out to Olivares. The next batter, Toro, swung at the first pitch and flew out to Taylor to end the scoring threat.

Olivares tried to hit the first pitch of the fourth to the moon, however it barely got to the outfield grass where Crawford caught it for the first out of the inning. Benintendi was up next and he softly grounded up the middle where Crawford threw him out. Gonzales capped off the 1-2-3 inning with his first strikeout of the day to Hunter Dozier.

Singer started the fourth inning with back-to-back strikeouts. He completed the 1-2-3 inning with a great defensive play by himself to get Raleigh to end the inning.

Singer began the fifth looking in command, getting a quick strikeout and groundout. The next batter, Mitch Haniger singled to extend the inning. For the second time today, Seager then walked. Singer then fell behind to Ty France but worked back and got a weak ground ball to Lopez to end the inning.

Through 5 innings it had been a semi-quiet game with the only run being an unearned run in the first; that would soon change.

The hottest man on the planet ended that scoring drought for the Royals when Salvy stepped up to the plate and for the fifth game in a row launched a home run to tie up the game.

Unfortunately that tie did not last long because in the bottom half of the 6th, Jarred Kelenic hit a solo shot of his own off of Singer to take a 2-1 lead. After Singer got out of the inning, his day was done with 6 IP 2 R 1 ER 3 BB 5 K.

The Royals tied it up again with a monster smash by Michael A. Taylor to left field that traveled 413 feet.

The home run streak by both teams sadly continued to the bottom of the 7th with Tyler Zuber on the mound; who was recently recalled from Omaha. With one runner on, Kyler Seager continued being a tough out for the Royals staff and he hit his 31st home run of the season.

The fight continued from the Royals in the top of the 8th against reliever Paul Sewald. With one out. Lopez gets on for the third time today with a single. Salvy then scorched a ball at 109 mph off the right center wall and Lopez scored from first. After an Olivares line out, Benintendi got a single of his own, moving Salvy to second. With two outs, Dozier flew out to end the threat; Royals down 4-3.

Josh Staumont came on for the bottom of the eighth and recorded a 1-2-3 inning.

Steckenrider closed the door for the Mariner’s completing the must-win for the contending squad. Royals head home after a 7-3 road trip. After a day off tomorrow, the Royals are back at it on Tuesday against the Indians.