ARLINGTON -- Fortunately or unfortunately, infielder Matt Duffy had been in this situation before.

On Aug. 11, 2021, Duffy, then with the Cubs, singled to break up a run of 10 consecutive strikeouts by Brewers ace Corbin Burnes. On Monday night, Duffy and the Royals were in a similar spot against Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney, who had nine consecutive strikeouts when Duffy walked to the plate in the fourth inning of Kansas City’s eventual 11-2 loss at Globe Life Field.

Duffy, who had started the streak back in the first inning, made contact this time, flying out to right field. Heaney tied the American League record for most consecutive strikeouts in a game, which has been done twice before: Tigers reliever Tyler Alexander in 2020 against the Reds, and Tigers righty Doug Fister in 2012 … against the Royals.

• Most consecutive strikeouts by pitcher

“I’m just trying to break the cycle,” Duffy said. “Against Corbin Burnes, he was exceptional that night. Anything in the strike zone, I was swinging at it. I didn’t care what pitch it was, somebody just had to put something in play. Sometimes guys get on a roll like that, and it’s just locating their best pitch in the best spot, over and over again. …

“That’s the approach, just break the cycle. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a bat.’”

It was that kind of night for the Royals, who jumped on Heaney early in the series opener with Bobby Witt Jr.’s leadoff single and stolen base. Vinnie Pasquantino walked, and Witt scored on right fielder Adolis García’s error in right field, when he dropped Salvador Perez’s fly ball on the warning track.

But Heaney struck out Duffy and Nicky Lopez to end the inning and start the streak. The Royals took 48 swings against Heaney and whiffed 19 times in five innings.

“Just a really low release point,” Duffy said of the challenge in facing Heaney. “It just creates a tougher angle for a four-seam fastball to handle. Really got to get a guy like that down in the strike zone, and in that stretch, he threw pretty much all of his fastballs up.”

Heaney’s game plan was to attack the Royals with high fastballs. Entering Monday, the Royals had a 30.9% chase rate on pitches up and out of the zone, which ranked fourth in baseball.

"I think we knew going in that they chase the high stuff, and we just needed to actually execute some pitches, get ahead of counts, and we were going to be in good shape,” Rangers catcher Jonah Heim said. “Tip the hat to [Heaney]. He executed everything we talked about game-plan wise, and it was really good for him."

While Heaney was inking his name in the history books, the Rangers’ offense was doing damage off Royals starter Zack Greinke, who allowed four runs (three earned) in five innings, including two home runs. When manager Matt Quatraro -- who returned to the Royals’ dugout following a five-game absence after testing positive for COVID-19 -- turned the game over to the bullpen, the game went sideways.

Reliever Dylan Coleman got two outs, walked four and allowed three runs before loading the bases for Jose Cuas, who yielded a grand slam to García.

Coleman was charged with six runs, bringing his ERA up to 18.00 across five innings this season.

“They’re working on a little mechanical thing with his lower half … and he wants it to come a little quicker than it is,” Quatraro said. “The other thing is just the intent. It’s easier said than done of working ahead and throwing it over the plate, and he’s obviously trying to do that, but it hasn’t been happening as easily as we’d like.”

To save the bullpen, Quatraro turned to utilityman Nate Eaton to pitch the eighth inning. The position player was the only Royals pitcher who didn’t surrender a run, and he lit up the radar gun, averaging 92-94 mph on his fastballs.

“I want to say it felt good, but it’s obviously not a good situation to be in by the time I pitched,” said Eaton, who pitched at Virginia Military Institute before he was selected as a catcher in the 21st round of the 2018 MLB Draft.

With everything that went wrong on Monday, it was rather easy for the Royals to turn their attention to Tuesday. The starter they'll face next? Rangers ace Jacob deGrom.

“Right away,” Quatraro said. “A wise baseball man said, ‘It’s better to get beat like that on both sides of the ball, then you can just flush the whole thing and get going.’”