Carter Jensen gave the Royals an early jolt Saturday night, and Kansas City kept swinging from there. But one late bullpen mistake in Pittsburgh was enough to turn a productive offensive night into a 6-5 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park.
Jensen’s second-inning blast off Pirates starter Bubba Chandler was the headline moment. It was his 25th home run of the season and pushed him past Bob Hamelin for the most rookie homers in franchise history.
“It’s just doing whatever I can to help the team win,” Jensen told reporters in Pittsburgh. “You know, tonight, to be able to hit the homer was cool. The other four at-bats, I missed out on some big opportunities to help put some runs on the board for my guys.”
Kansas City took that energy and ran with it. The Royals piled up 13 hits after falling into an early three-run hole, and Nick Loftin kept finding grass all night, finishing with four singles. His last one came in the seventh and put Kansas City ahead with an RBI knock.
Jac Caglianone and Vinnie Pasquantino also drove in runs, giving the Royals a steady stream of production across the lineup.
Caglianone’s return was a story in itself. He was back after being disciplined Friday, following the hand injury he suffered in the dugout during Thursday’s game against the Houston Astros.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro had benched him, and Caglianone was remorseful for what happened. On Saturday, though, the designated hitter responded with two hits, two walks and a run scored.
Even with all that offense, the night still slipped away in the eighth.
Pirates second baseman Brandon Lowe launched a two-run homer off Royals reliever Steven Cruz to break the game open. Lowe jumped on a 93.8 mph cutter that stayed over the middle of the plate, and the blast proved to be the difference. It was Lowe’s second homer in as many games, and it handed Kansas City another frustrating finish in a 6-5 defeat.
“We go with Cruzy there and we really have a lot of confidence in him,” Quatraro told reporters in Pittsburgh. “He’s been throwing the ball well and Lowe just had another big hit for them.”
The Royals had chances all night to build more separation. Chandler was out after four innings and three runs allowed, and Kansas City got RBIs from five different players. But the big hit that would have changed the feel of the game never fully arrived, and when the late rally came up short, Mason Montgomery shut the door by retiring Salvador Perez, Maikel Garcia and Loftin with the tying run stranded on second.
“As we always say, when the game is decided late, that’s what the attention goes to,” Quatraro said. “But there was a lot of other things throughout the game that gave us an opportunity to get up bigger or hold them. Just wasn’t able to do it.”
Pittsburgh got its own offense going against Noah Cameron, who allowed four runs and struck out six over six innings. The Pirates scored four times off him, including two-run homers from Ronny Simon and Jake Mangum. Cameron didn’t factor into the decision.
“He gave up a couple of homers, but at the end of the day he went out there and battled for us,” Jensen said of Cameron’s night. “He went six with four runs and that’s all we can ask for. As an offense, we should be able to back that up.”
Cameron called his outing “all right and finished strong,” adding, “Kept us in the game and we started scoring a couple of runs there. A big shutdown inning after we scored two there. It was good, obviously, to give the team a chance to win.”
The loss dropped the Royals to 67-88, leaving them 21 games under .500 with seven games left. Kansas City will try to avoid 90 losses this season while Michael Wacha gets the ball Sunday afternoon.
Wacha enters at 9-9 with a 3.34 ERA and is looking to get close to 200 innings for the year. The Pirates have not announced a starter, and first pitch is set for 12:35 p.m.
Central.
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