Robbie’s RBI win strengthens the Royals’ relief in the 3-0 loss

In a duel between two weak attacking teams, the Kansas City Royals scored more runs in their 3-0 victory over the Washington Nationals than in the previous four games combined.

The starting pitchers were in control early on, with Michael Lorenzen and DJ Herz allowing just three baserunners in the first two innings. In the third inning, the Royals made their first comeback of the night. Kyle Isbel worked a walk to open the inning before Tommy Pham hit a single to center. Bobby Witt Jr. followed with a flyout that moved Isbel to third base and gave Kansas City runners on the corners with just one out. Michael Massey then hit a pretty good slider from Herz for a single that scored Isbel. The next two batters flew out, but Kansas City led 1-0.

With one out in the bottom of the inning, Lorenzen threw the third ball to Nasim Nuñez. He felt something on the pitch and signaled to the dugout. Matt Quatraro came out with Kyle Turner to talk to their starter. After a brief discussion while Daniel Lynch IV was already warming up in the bullpen, Lorenzen left the game. It was later announced that he was taken out of the game as a precautionary measure due to “lower body fatigue.” Lynch walked Nuñez and served a single to James Wood, but he managed to finish the inning with the lead intact.

Herz didn’t allow another run until the fifth inning. As Washington has always used him this season, he was taken out of the game after throwing just 81 pitches. Eduardo Salazar came in to pitch. Salvador Perez greeted him with a hard single up the middle. Yuli Gurriel followed with a grounder to the 5-6 hole that probably would have been a hit, but Nuñez stripped it with his glove and kicked the ball toward the left field line, allowing Perez to reach third base and Gurriel to sprint to second base for a double. With two runners in scoring position, Robbie Grossman didn’t wait long, hitting the first pitch he saw to center field to bring both runners home. That was enough for Washington manager Dave Martinez, who took Salazar out of the game and brought in Robert Garcia to put out the fire, which he did with nine pitches.

Lynch got into a bit of a pinch in the fifth inning, but managed to get out without allowing a run. Angel Zerpa took his place in the sixth and, with a lot of help from his defense, threw a 1-2-3 inning in the middle inning. John Schreiber came in for the seventh inning and walked Ildemaro Vargas and Drew Millas right to start the inning. He recovered, striking out Jacob Young and Nuñez with some nasty sweepers before getting Dylan Crews to fly out to the warning track and end the inning. In the eighth inning, Sam Long shut the side down to send the game into the ninth with Kansas City leading. Lucas Erceg pitched the ninth inning, hoping for a franchise-record 26 consecutive scoreless innings (for the whole team, not just Erceg). Washington went down in order for the fifth time in the game, and Kansas City finished with a 3-0 victory.

With the win, the Royals improved their record to 84-74. They are a half-game ahead of the Tigers, who lead Tampa Bay 7-1 in the eighth inning at the time of this writing. If that score holds, Kansas City will remain tied with Detroit (albeit with a tiebreaker) and 2.5 games ahead of Seattle (who already played today) and Minnesota (who are 3-3 with Miami in the fifth inning). They will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon in Washington.

Michael Lorenzen: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0 HR

DJ Herz: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 0 HR

Robbie Grossman: 1-4, 2 RBI

Nasim Nunez: 1-2, BB