Danny Duffy’s milestone strikeout comes in a Royals loss to the Rays

There were no late-inning home runs or walk-off dramatics this time for the Kansas City Royals. There was just the bitter taste of committing three errors, giving up three unearned runs and being held scoreless until the ninth inning on their home turf.

Royals veteran left-hander Danny Duffy recorded the 1,000th strikeout of his career Monday night and moved into sixth place on the franchise’s career strikeout leaderboard. He turned in a third consecutive quality start to begin the season and lowered his ERA to 0.50.

Despite having tossed six innings without allowing an earned run, Duffy still got tagged with the loss as the Royals lost 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays in front of an announced crowd of 5,589 for the opening game of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

He gave up two unearned runs that scored on a high fly ball in the infield that first baseman Carlos Santana failed to catch.

“Duff was fantastic today,” Royals Mike Matheny said. “He continues to impress us and give us a great chance. He even got tired there at the end, but kept pushing and made great pitches all the way through. We just couldn’t get anything going offensively, and obviously, we had a miscue there from a very good defender. He makes that play every time.”

The Royals (9-6) were held to five hits, including two by Santana. Salvador Perez, Michael A. Taylor and Nicky Lopez also had hits. Santana and Perez each doubled. Perez scored the club’s lone run on a Jorge Soler sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

Duffy (2-1) reached the milestone in the fourth inning when he struck out the side. He mowed down the Rays’ Nos. 2-5 hitters — Randy Arozarena, Brandon Lowe and Manuel Margot — all swinging and missing on fastballs for third strikes.

They were his fourth, fifth, and sixth strikeouts of the night, and they came with the teams locked in a scoreless tie.

Duffy, now in his 11th major-league season, tied Tom Gordon for sixth place on the club’s strikeout list when he retired Lowe with a 93 mph heater that pushed his total to 999.

Duffy then started off falling behind 3-0 on Margot before he fired three consecutive strikes and finished with a 95 mph fastball.

He sits alone in sixth place on the Royals’ strikeout list behind Kevin Appier (1,458), Mark Gubicza (1,366), Dennis Leonard (1,323), Bret Saberhagen (1,093) and Paul Splittorff (1,057).

“It’s something I knew I was approaching, but I don’t really concern myself with that kind of stuff,” Duffy said. “But when it happened and my boys came over and congratulated me, it did mean a lot. I’m really thankful to be here as long as I have, really cool deal.”

What definitely resonated with Duffy was the fact that he reached the milestone while throwing to his longtime teammate Perez.

Perez reached his own milestone with 1,000 career hits a week earlier. In between those two milestones, Santana also reached 1,000 career walks.

“He’s a brother to me,” Duffy said of Perez. “He’s the first teammate that I met when I got to the AZL. For us to be able to share that achievement, it’s special. I’m not into personal accolades, but I’m definitely proud of that one.”

Duffy finished the night having allowed the two unearned runs, four hits and two walks in six innings. He struck out eight.

The Rays drew first blood in the fifth inning on a sky-high pop-up by Willy Adames on a cold and breezy day.

Santana didn’t haul it in, and with two outs, the runner, Joey Wendle, didn’t hesitate on the play and Adames passed Santana at very close range while rounding first.

Santana said between the wind and Adames, who did not make contact with him, he simply “missed it” and felt terrible about the play.

Wendle scored. Santana picked up the ball and sailed a throw over the shortstop Lopez in an attempt to get Adames advancing to second. With Adames in scoring position, Kevin Kiermaier singled to left field to drive in the second run.

In hindsight, Duffy lamented trying to overpower Kiermaier instead of setting him up for the pitch he ultimately wanted to throw.

“I’m kicking myself about not picking up my teammate on that Kiermaier hit,” Duffy said. “... Carlos saved me the last two games, I think, twice. Those two games could have looked a lot different if it wasn’t for him. So I was kicking myself over that.”

The Rays (9-8) loaded the bases in the sixth on the strength of a single by Arozarena, a pair of one-out walks on ball/strike calls by home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz that drew the ire of the Royals fans in attendance, almost unanimously.

With one out and the bases loaded trailing by two, Duffy got Francisco Mejia to hit a bounce back to the mound. Duffy threw to Perez for the force at home and Perez then threw to first in time to get Mejia for an inning-ending double play.

Duffy gave Perez a slap on the chest protector as he yelled in celebration after the play. Duffy turned the game over to the bullpen the following inning.

Jake Brentz faced three batters and didn’t record an out. An error by second baseman Whit Merrifield allowed a run to score and the Rays grabbed a three-run advantage after seven innings.

Royals hitters went from the first batter of the fourth inning until two outs in the eighth without a hit or a walk. Taylor snapped his own 0-for-13 stretch with a roller through the infield and into right field with two outs in the eighth.

Then Lopez singled to right to put runners on the corners. The Royals hadn’t put two men on in any of the previous innings. Merrifield struck out to end the inning.

They scratched out the one run in the ninth when Perez doubled off the wall in center field, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on the sacrifice fly to avoid the shutout.