Slump hits new low, but Royals pledge to 'get out of it'
ARLINGTON -- Royals catcher Salvador Perez isn’t overly concerned about the team finding its way back from a forgettable road trip. But for the first time this season, the Royals were swept on Sunday, falling 4-0 to the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
“Keep playing hard. That’s it,” Perez said. “This situation happens to a lot of teams in the big leagues. It’s part of the process. You know, flush the toilet today and get ready for tomorrow.”
Kansas City ended the road trip with a 2-7 record and, for the first time since April 6, would not be in the playoffs if the season ended today.
The Royals struggled mightily at the plate on the trip, posting a .169 average and scoring three or fewer runs in six of the last seven games.
Sunday was the worst performance as the Royals finished with a season-low two hits. They managed just five hits combined in the last two games, their fewest hits in a two-game span since May 6-7, 2017. This is also the first time they’ve been shut out in consecutive games since March 30-April 1, 2023.
Perez, who went 0-for-10 in the series, reiterated that the Royals have to move on rather than dwell on the slump.
“Nothing we can do about it. We’re going to keep playing hard, OK?” Perez said. “We’ll forget about today. It’s over, bad series for us, and concentrate on tomorrow and try to win the series at home.”
The lack of offensive production has come at the expense of solid starting efforts. In the first two games against the Rangers, Brady Singer and Michael Wacha both delivered five innings of one-run ball. In the finale, Alec Marsh bounced back from a rough start in his previous outing by allowing three runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
Marsh allowed all three runs in the fourth inning. He issued a five-pitch walk to Adolis García to start the inning, then Nathaniel Lowe reached on an infield single. Wyatt Langford’s double off Marsh produced the first run, but Marsh battled back by retiring the next two batters. He almost limited the damage to one run, but Leody Taveras drove in two runs on a bloop single to left to cap the frame.
“Just unlucky,” Marsh said of the bloop single. “I thought it was a good pitch, just kept trying to make pitches. It’s going to happen sometimes. In order for that not to happen, probably staying away from [five-pitch] walks to start an inning or stuff like that. … But, yeah, I was happy with a lot of it.”
Those runs were enough for the Rangers, especially given the Royals’ offensive struggles, to keep the lead. Texas starter Max Scherzer made his season debut and retired the first 13 batters he faced.
MJ Melendez broke up the perfect game with one out in the fifth with a ground-rule double, but Scherzer retired the next two Royals. Scherzer exited after five scoreless innings, but the Royals didn’t fare any better against Rangers reliever Jose Ureña. The right-hander allowed just one hit -- a leadoff single by Maikel Garcia in the sixth -- over the final four innings.
Royals bench coach Paul Hoover, who served as interim manager with Matt Quatraro tending to a personal matter, addressed the offense’s struggles.
“Obviously when you’re scuffling a little bit, you want to see anything fall and when you hit a ball, it’s right at somebody,” Hoover said. “But these guys are working really, really hard and confident that the bunch is going to be able to get through it.”
The Royals’ offense is now carrying a 22-inning scoreless streak into their upcoming 10-game homestand. However, the club is committed to the idea that it’s only a matter of time until the cold bats start to warm back up.
From a pitching perspective, Marsh said the offensive slide hasn’t put more pressure on the staff.
“No, I don’t think we ever really feel pressure,” Marsh said. “We believe in them as much as they believe in us, so just continuing that and just coming together as a group and not putting our heads down. Just getting back to work. Things are going to start clicking soon.
“We’ve just got to regroup and get ready for the next one. That’s all that can be said. We’re going to fight through this and get out of it.”