Heasley, Royals hit hard in rain-soaked loss

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals couldn’t prevent the rainy conditions that accompanied Saturday afternoon’s game against the Tigers, and everything they tried to do to contain the Tigers' offense wasn’t working well, either.

Jonathan Heasley gave up seven runs in four-plus innings in the Royals’ 8-4 loss that was eventually called in the eighth inning due to persistent rain, and Kansas City is now looking to avoid a sweep to last-place Detroit on Sunday.

The Royals moved up Saturday’s game three hours to try to escape the wet forecast, but they still got hit with rain in the third inning and throughout the rest of the game.

The tarp was pulled on in the middle of the eighth inning and the game was called nearly an hour later.

“There were a couple times it was coming down pretty good,” manager Mike Matheny said. “I didn’t know if they were going to pull us off the field or not. And then it got to the point where the field was really rough. It was tough pitching there for a little bit. … Both sides were dealing with it, and they both fought through it.”

Both Heasley and Tigers starter Matt Manning, who pitched into the seventh, had trouble gripping the ball at various points of the game. The umpiring crew allowed pitchers to keep the rosin bag in their back pocket instead of on the mound where it was getting soaked, and there were a few times a trainer came out with a towel to dry off a pitcher’s arm.

"It was really just kind of trying to pound the zone, don't overthrow,” Manning said. “... My pants were soaked. My hat was soaked. Each ball he was giving me was soaked. I couldn't really feel anything. I was trying to get them out of the ball bag and hide them in my glove, do anything I could to keep a grip.”

Because of the elements or something else, Heasley was ineffective Saturday afternoon, vastly different from a week ago when he allowed two runs in seven innings in Detroit. This was the first time in Heasley’s career that he faced the same opponent in back-to-back starts.

His velocity was down from the start. The most alarming example was his fastball, which averaged 91.1 mph, down from the 93.8 mph yearly average (2.7 mph decrease). His changeup, curveball and slider all saw various decreases of over 1 mph as well.

Heasley dealt with a velocity decrease during a start in July that landed him on the injured list with right shoulder tendinitis. But Saturday’s velocity decrease wasn’t a matter of how he physically felt. Rather, Heasley said he was simply trying to get a better command of the ball and strike zone as the rain continued. Manning’s velocity was also down Saturday.

“If I were to step on it, I was either going to slip or the ball was going to slip,” Heasley said. “I was trying to reign it back a little bit just to command the ball better. Just one of those things you got to go with on the fly, try to throw strikes and get people out.”

After he walked Tigers No. 9 hitter Akil Baddoo in the third, Detroit crushed Heasley for three runs with a triple, double and a single.

He got through the fourth unscathed, but a leadoff walk to Baddoo in the fifth led to similar results with back-to-back singles. Heasley exited after having faced three batters and was charged with three of the four runs the Tigers scored that inning.

“Just trying to throw strikes at that point, and some of them were balls over the plate,” Heasley said. “Wasn’t getting ahead of guys, and that was the biggest part of it, too. Working from behind is not easy.”

Friday’s eight-run loss marked the Royals’ worst defeat to the Tigers in four years, dating back to a 12-4 loss on April 21, 2018, at Comerica Park. Saturday wasn't much better. The Royals managed four runs but only on four hits -- the first on Bobby Witt Jr.’s 24th double of the year that was followed by a Salvador Perez RBI single -- and have been outscored 18-6 in the last two games against the Tigers.

“It’s one of those days where it’s hard to evaluate too much,” Matheny said. “But [the Tigers] weren’t having any trouble finding balls that found their way through. I like where we’ve been overall, we’ve just had a couple games here where it hasn’t looked like the offensive attack that we’ve normally had.”