Diamondbacks fall to Royals offensive onslaught 10-4

The Diamondbacks dropped the series opener to the Kansas City Royals, 10-4, at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals pounded out 15 hits against Yilber Diaz and the bullpen. Bobby Witt Jr. put on a show, collecting three extra-base hits in his first three trips to the plate and came a single short of the cycle. Witt was one of three Kansas City hitters to record a three-hit night.

After putting together back-to-back starts of six innings and one run allowed, Diaz got his “Welcome to the Major Leagues” moment against the Royals. He stranded a one-out triple in the first but eventually fell to the offensive onslaught. The Royals scored three in the third, then four runs in the fourth to chase Diaz from the game with no outs. The young right-hander allowed seven runs on nine hits, one walk, and no strikeouts.

Diaz struggled to get ahead of hitters on the night and couldn’t get any swing-and-miss to get back in the count. One of the top pitchers in the minor leagues at getting strikeouts this year, he only got three swings and misses on the night. Only one of them came on his secondary stuff. After leading with his slider as his primary second pitch in his first two starts, he tried to rely more on his knuckle-curve.

Despite falling behind 1-0, the Diamondbacks answered back in the third. Kevin Newman and Alek Thomas opened up the inning with doubles to tie the game. Ketel Marte then golfed a changeup below the zone and crushed a long home run to left field that put the Diamondbacks up 3-1 at the time. Those would be the only three runs they scored off All-Star left-hander Cole Ragans.

As quickly as they got the lead, they gave it back. Witt doubled to open the bottom of the third. Vinnie Pasquantino singled up the middle to cut the lead to 3-2. Diaz then grooved a fastball out over the plate to Salvador Perez, who crushed a long home run to straightaway center field to put the Royals up 4-3.

Diaz ran into more trouble in the fourth. Another rally from the bottom of the order put the Royals in prime position to blow the game open. Maikel Garcia singled and Kyle Isbel drove him home with a double off the right field wall. Adam Frazier then dropped a bunt down the third base line that third baseman Eugenio Suárez chose to play instead of let roll foul.

With the game starting to slip out of their grasp, Lovullo went to the bullpen. Miguel Castro came on in place of Diaz, surrendering a home run on the first pitch he threw to Witt to blow the game open. Castro also served up a home run to Hunter Renfroe the following inning that made it 9-3.

Humberto Castellanos came on in the sixth inning, to finish out the game. With Witt up and a chance to complete the cycle, he plunked the Royals’ star shortstop with a first-pitch sinker. Castellanos was showered with a parade of boos for the rest of the inning, which only stopped when Witt scored on a sacrifice fly.

In the subsequent half-inning, catcher Gabriel Moreno took a Jon Schreiber fastball to the ribs. That led to umpires issuing warnings, with Lovullo getting tossed by home plate umpire Jordan Baker in the ensuing moments. The Diamondbacks manager then got into a heated exchange with Baker and crew chief Brian O’Nora.

The Diamondbacks tacked on a run in the eighth, as Christian Walker led off the inning with a double to the left center gap then advanced to third when center fielder Kyle Isbel lost the handle on his throw. Walker later scored on Suárez’s sacrifice fly.

Next Game

The Diamondbacks will take on the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, with first pitch at 5:10 P.M. MST. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery will come off the injured list to start for Arizona while right-hander Alec Marsh (7-6, 4.52 ERA) will go for Kansas City.