The Kansas City Royals had already been hit hard by injuries before Sunday’s finale against the San Diego Padres. Then the game itself turned into another body blow.
Kansas City entered the afternoon at Kauffman Stadium without Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino in the lineup, while second baseman Michael Massey was on the bench. Witt was out with back tightness, Pasquantino with a hamate fracture. About two hours before first pitch, the Royals lost another arm when Stephen Kolek was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right flexor strain.
That backdrop made the 19-2 loss sting even more. The Padres rolled through the Royals behind a big early burst and never let up.
Noah Cameron took the brunt of it. San Diego jumped on him in the second inning for four earned runs, with Fernando Tatis Jr. driving in two on a single and Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado adding RBI hits. Merrill ended up with two homers on the day, while Tatis went 2-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs.
Cameron could have been in even deeper trouble. Left fielder Isaac Collins saved extra bases with a diving catch on Machado, and that play limited the inning to a sacrifice fly instead of something worse.
Even so, Cameron never found much rhythm. He gave up seven runs in five innings and struck out only one.
The Padres kept finding the mistakes. They put 23 batted balls in play against Cameron and posted a 91.4 average exit velocity, according to Baseball Savant. The loss dropped Cameron to 5-8, and his ERA sits at 5.27 across 19 starts.
Kansas City did briefly have something to hang onto. Jac Caglianone’s 16th homer of the season gave the Royals a temporary lead, a solo shot that traveled 432 feet and extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
After that, though, the offense went quiet for a long stretch. The Royals didn’t score again until the sixth inning, and a chance to do real damage slipped away in the fourth when they loaded the bases with no outs. Padres reliever Yuki Matsui struck out Carter Jensen and got Nick Loftin to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
By the end, the numbers told the story. Kansas City went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners.
The game was already out of hand by the time the Padres poured it on late. Ty France launched a grand slam off Lucas Erceg in the eighth, then added a solo homer in the ninth against position player Tyler Tolbert. San Diego scored 11 runs over the final two innings to turn an 8-2 game into a 19-2 rout.
German Marquez didn’t factor into the decision for the Padres after allowing two earned runs in three innings. San Diego moved to 49-50, while the Royals fell to 40-60 and remain 20 games under .500 with the second-worst record in the American League.
The Royals now turn to Michael Wacha, their All-Star starter, for Monday night’s matchup with the San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium. Wacha is 5-7 with a 3.77 ERA.
The Giants have not announced a starter, and first pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. Central.
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For a Royals system that has been looking for more loud pitching performances, the timing mattered as much as the result. Chourio has been piling up strong outings lately, and Reyes has been steady all season with 69 strikeouts in 82 2/3 innings, but this was a different kind of statement - one that showed how quickly a game can turn when both arms are in sync and a young pitcher settles in at a new level. [Read more 🡒]