Former Royals come back to haunt powder blue boys in 3-0 loss to Orioles

Deep sigh.

Of course, a reeling team whose pitching in particular has struggled comes in to the series against the Royals starting a guy with an ERA above 7.00. Naturally, that meant we’d get a slugfest blistering fast pitcher’s duel just like last Friday.

One hour and 25 minutes into the game, 7:30pm central, we were already halfway through the 7th inning stretch. I swear I got up to make mac and cheese in the 3rd inning and by the time I sat down to eat it was the 6th inning. Every time I looked back at the TV while cooking it was a between-inning commercial.

It’s not like either pitcher was really mowing down the opposing lineup either. Michael Wacha had only 3 strikeouts through 6 innings. Orioles starter Dean Kremer had only 2 strikeouts in 7 innings. Just…a lot of contact found gloves, one way or another.

I’m on the side of the pitch clock, shorter games and all, but this is a little absurd! Somebody score some runs! Preferably the Royals (oops, my bad).

It wasn’t until after the 7th inning stretch that somebody finally found open grass. Adley Rutschman lined a double down the right field line to lead off the inning. Then Wacha left a fastball just a little too hittable to former Royal Ryan O’Hearn, who swatted it over the left-center fence into the Orioles bullpen for a two-run dinger. Wacha hadn’t even reached 70 pitches yet. He would not make it out of the inning.

After another double and a walk, Quatraro pulled Wacha for Steven Cruz, who promptly gave up a line drive single up the middle, loading the bases. Another former Royal, Emmanuel Rivera, lined a single over an outstretched Michael Massey to score another run to make it 3-0. Thankfully a double play ended the inning before further damage could be done.

But no more damage needed to be done. The Royals offense could not muster anything in the later innings, and they went down quietly in Baltimore to open the series with a loss.

The Royals fall to 17-16, and the Orioles improve to 13-18. They play again tomorrow at 6:15pm US Central. The game will be televised on FOX.