Soler-guided rally offers KC hope amid skid 

As the Royals battled their way through more than a week of losses, and as questions filtered in about their offense and pitching and defense, the coaching staff’s message has been consistent: Stay the course. Things will turn around.

That’s what made Tuesday’s 8-7 walk-off loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park -- the Royals’ ninth defeat in a row -- that much more difficult.

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Down seven runs entering the eighth inning, Jorge Soler brought the Royals within four with his first home run since April 21. Then in the ninth, Ryan O’Hearn -- substituted into right field when manager Mike Matheny made defensive changes to give catcher Salvador Perez and second baseman Whit Merrifield a rest -- drove in one run. With the bases loaded thanks to Tigers shortstop Niko Goodrum’s error on Sebastian Rivero’s grounder, Soler jumped on the first pitch he saw for a game-tying, bases-clearing double to the center-field fence.

With the game tied, the Royals’ dugout was energized, ready to take it to extra innings and finally snap a losing streak that had been hovering since May 2.

But reliever Scott Barlow put two runners on base before Robbie Grossman lined the winning single to right field in the bottom of the ninth.

“They’re all hard,” Matheny said. “That one was exceptionally hard because of how our guys worked and everything we’ve been asking. Just stay the course, keep fighting, and things are going to turn out; they will.

“I hurt for them. They got to know that [if] they keep playing like that, we’ll be right where we want to be. Every one of them hurts, but that one hurt a lot.”

Facing Goodrum to lead off the ninth, Barlow got a swinging strike on a slider down and in. He threw the same pitch again, but it was too far down and in and hit Goodrum on the foot.

That was the baserunner that ended up hurting Barlow, who got Willi Castro to strike out looking before walking Akil Baddoo to put two on. After Jake Rogers struck out swinging, Barlow got in a 1-2 count on Grossman. A conversation with Rivero and pitching coach Cal Eldred on the mound resulted in Barlow throwing a 95 mph fastball low and inside to Grossman, who pulled it into right field as Goodrum rounded third and came home.

“I was fully committed to [the pitch],” Barlow said. “At the end of the day, it’s all you can ask for. … It’s not the result you want. All you can really do is look back at the outing and see what you could have done better.”

The Royals were able to have a high-leverage reliever available in the ninth because of the three scoreless innings Ervin Santana threw in long relief Tuesday. The Tigers jumped on starter Brady Singer in the fourth inning with a triple, a walk and four soft singles, knocking him out of the game, and they scored three more runs off relievers Tyler Zuber and Jake Brentz.

“Kind of unlucky, but they put balls where guys weren’t,” Singer said. “Definitely tough, definitely annoying, but you just keep on going.”

There were silver linings to the loss, despite the immediate heartbreak. Soler was one of them. If the Royals’ offense is to improve, having Soler be a force in the middle of the lineup again would help. Soler entered Tuesday hitting just .191 on the season, and Kansas City entered the day scoring just 2.6 runs per game since the first loss in its skid.

“That’s the hitter we know he is, and I know that’s been frustrating for him, that we haven’t seen it often enough,” Matheny said. “He’s an impressive talent.”

Soler has been working in the cages to get his swing back to what it looked like in Spring Training and in 2019, when he was the American League home run champion. He has been hitting the ball hard consistently, but they’ve mainly been groundouts or lineouts. His final two at-bats Tuesday provided a glimpse into what he’s been working on -- going up the middle and lifting the ball for damage.

They also lit a spark in an offense struggling to score lately. That will have to continue as the Royals put Tuesday -- and the past week -- behind them.

“Something definitely clicked, being able to get RBIs and get back into that game after being down seven runs,” Soler said through an interpreter. “It’s a great feeling. Everybody in the dugout cheers up. We know and understand that we’re a really good team and we’re capable of doing these kinds of things. It’s just about going out there and proving to ourselves that we can keep going.”