Mariners finish off three-game sweep of Royals with 2-1 win

The Kansas City Royals offense looked punchless on Sunday, only scoring one run in a 2-1 defeat to the Seattle Mariners, the team's fourth loss in a row.

The Royals only run scored came in the top of the second inning. Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez led off the inning against Roenis Elias with back to back singles, then back-to-back flyouts by Danny Valencia and Justin Maxwell advanced Gordon two bases. It's always nice to manufacture a run, I guess.

A KC hitter wouldn't reach second base again until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Maxwell advanced to second base with two outs thanks to a Pedro Ciriaco bunt. The team had zero extra base hits, which isn't the sentence you hope to type in a game recap.

Eric Hosmer went 0-4 and is now batting .252/.290/.358 on the season. He has a -0.7 fWAR. Eric Hosmer must hit No. 3 every day.

Yordano Ventura turned in a quality start, only allowing two runs over seven innings. The right-hander gave up six hits, but also struck out six. Seattle's first run came on a Willie Bloomquist "double" (a little flair down the rightfield line that just stayed fair and drove in the runner from second).

Mike Zunino put the Mariners ahead with a solo shot in the seventh. Ventura hung a 1-2 changeup over the inside part of the plate, and Zunino crushed it, blasting the ball over the bullpen in left field.

Alcides Escobar was hit by a pitch in the second inning, and ending up leaving the game because of a bruised shin. X-Rays were negative, according to Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star, so hopefully the team's shortstop will be back soon.

Kansas City is now 39-36 on the season, and starts a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday. Zack Greinke will start the first game of that series, squaring off against Jeremy Guthrie.