Royals' first chance proves best chance vs. Arizona ace

PHOENIX -- The Royals bookended a 2-0 loss to the D-backs on Wednesday afternoon with their only two opportunities with runners in scoring position. Both times, the result was the same as it has been too many times this season.

Runners stranded, inning over.

• He really knocked the cover off this ... slow-rolling dribbler?

D-backs starter Zac Gallen entered Wednesday with a 2.59 ERA and 21 2/3 straight scoreless innings. So when Vinnie Pasquantino singled in the first and went to third on MJ Melendez’s single with one out, it was a rare opportunity for a team to tag the Arizona ace with some runs.

In hindsight, it was the only opportunity.

But Gallen struck out Edward Olivares swinging on a right-on-right changeup and Michael Massey swinging on a curveball. Gallen then retired 15 of his next 16 batters.

The Royals’ next opportunity with runners in scoring position didn’t come until the ninth inning, when Melendez walked and went to second as Olivares reach on an error. Two pinch-hit flyouts and a strikeout later, the Royals suffered their Major League-high sixth shutout of the year.

“We had a shot, I thought we were going to do it,” Pasquantino said. “He was able to get out of that jam, and we’ve got to do better than that. We’ve got to really bear down with runners in scoring position and make sure that if you have a guy on third, less than two outs, you do your job.

“You know going in facing a guy like that, if he’s got his stuff, you’re not going to have many opportunities. So when you get them, you’ve got to take advantage of it. If you don’t, you saw what happened.”

The Royals’ offense had shown signs of improvement recently, producing at least 10 hits in three of the last four games. In those last four games, the Royals hit .306 with 16 extra-base hits. On Tuesday, six different players recorded a multi-hit effort. They were 13-for-35 with runners in scoring position over their last four games after going 5-for-45 in their previous seven games.

But as the saying goes, an offense is only as good as the next day’s pitcher.

And Gallen was excellent.

A contender for the 2022 National League Cy Young Award -- he finished fifth in the voting -- Gallen spun 6 1/3 scoreless innings and was taken out when he matched his season high of 97 pitches. His scoreless streak is at 28 innings.

“I’m not exactly sure how [his pitches] grade out, but he locates the heck out of them,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “He pitches right on the edges of the zone. He expands when he needs to or he wants to. He can double up, triple up. He can use both sides of the plate. So he presents a lot of challenges for any team.”

Royals starter Ryan Yarbrough matched Gallen’s effort through three innings but then threw a 30-pitch fourth that included a broken-bat single for the first run of the game. Reliever Amir Garrett’s leadoff walk in the fifth came around to score, and two runs seemed insurmountable with Gallen cruising.

Gallen struck out 12, including six in a row in the fourth and fifth innings. The Royals were no match for his curveball, which they whiffed on nine times on 16 swings, nor his changeup, which they whiffed on five times and averaged a 77.6 mph exit velocity.

The Royals had no answer for Gallen’s pitch mix, command or the way he changed speeds.

“You watch it on video and see that’s what he does, but he’s playing chess,” Pasquantino said. “And he’s really good at it. He’s setting you up for not just the next pitch but for the following pitch after that. He’s moving your eyes around, and he did a really nice job today.”

And at least once, he threw a pitch the Royals had never seen before. On the third pitch of Pasquantino’s at-bat in the sixth inning, Gallen threw what Pasquantino called a “cut-change” -- a pitch that had “lower-than-normal changeup spin with cutter movement,” Pasquantino explained.

Pasquantino swung through it, and it hit the top of catcher Jose Herrera’s glove before smashing home-plate umpire Edwin Jimenez’s mask.

“I’m not 100% sure if he meant to do it,” Pasquantino said. “That’s an anomaly pitch, but he’s able to do stuff like that and be around the zone. There’s a reason he’s got such a long scoreless streak going on.”