A Royal slump
Kansas streak City to extendeda franchise-recordits scoreless 43 fourth innings, consecutive getting gameshut in out a for 12-0 a loss to Tampa Bay on Monday night. The Royals haven’t scored since the second inning of Thursday’s 3-2 loss to Colorado and were blanked three times over the weekend by Cleveland.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals extended their scoreless streak to a franchise-record 43 innings, getting shut out for a fourth consecutive game in a 12-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.
The Royals haven’t scored since the second inning of a 3-2 loss to Colorado on Thursday and were blanked three times over the weekend by Cleveland. The 1968 Chicago Cubs and 1906 Philadelphia Athletics hold the major league record at 48 scoreless innings, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The 1992 Cubs were the last team to be blanked in four consecutive games, and it hasn’t happened in the American League since the 1964 Washington Senators — nine years before the adoption of the designated hitter. No team has been shut out in five consecutive games since at least 1913, according to information gathered from baseball-reference.com.
The Royals were two games out of first place on July 28 after a ninegame winning streak. Since then, they have lost 19 of 29 and are 10 games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland and three games back of Minnesota for the final AL wild card.
Austin Pruitt (7-4) pitched six innings of one-run ball for Tampa Bay, and Matt Andriese allowed one more hit while getting a three-inning save.
Lucas Duda, Wilson Ramos and Logan Morrison went deep for Tampa Bay, with Duda getting his 25th and Morrison his 32nd of the season. Evan Longoria and Morrison hit back-to-back doubles after Duda’s shot in the third off Ian Kennedy (410).
Kennedy was removed after Ramos’
home run later that inning. He allowed 7 runs on 2 home runs and 4 doubles, 2 walks and a sacrifice fly. Kennedy has allowed 15 runs and 19 hits, 6 of them home runs, in 10 innings in his past 3 starts. He is winless in a club record 17 consecutive home starts.