Kansas City Royals wrap up grim West Coast trip with 6-3 loss to the Athletics

The sunshine and high skies of the West Coast were not kind to the Kansas City Royals. They wrapped up their seven-game road trip with just one win after a series-ending loss to the Oakland Athletics on Sunday afternoon.

Once again, a young Royals starting pitcher’s growing pains played a big part in the outcome — a theme throughout the West Coast swing. Left-hander Kris Bubic allowed five runs and couldn’t make it through five innings in a 6-3 loss to the Athletics in front of an announced 7,060 at the Oakland Coliseum.

The Royals (30-34) dropped three of four games to the AL West-leading Athletics (40-27), and they’ll head back to Kansas City having lost eight of nine and three in a row since their series-opening win in Oakland.

In his last two starts against the Athletics and Los Angeles Angels, Bubic (1-2) gave up seven home runs in 8 2/3 innings. Six of those home runs have come off of his best pitch, the changeup.

“I just went back and looked at my heat map for the day in terms of pitch location, and everything is just middle-middle — the majority right now,” Bubic said. “That’s just been killing me. To give up seven homers in not even nine innings, that’s a product of leaving the ball in the heart of the plate.”

Bubic allowed runs in each of the first three innings, including two home runs. For the entire outing, Bubic allowed five runs, seven hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. He gave up three homers, including two to Athletics left-handed hitting first baseman Matt Olson.

“I kind of had a good plan going in, but it’s just hard,” Bubic said. “It’s hard to succeed in the spots that I’m putting myself in. It’s just a matter of getting back to the basics, getting ahead and going from there.”

Bubic, who began the season with the minor-league players at the alternate training site, had been impressive in his first seven appearances (three starts) in the majors this season. He went 1-0 with a 1.52 ERA in 29 2/3 innings.

“The way he pitches, got to be right on the black,” said Perez, who was behind the plate for Bubic’s start on Sunday. “Move guys, throw inside a little bit and try to work with the changeup down and away, the curveball too.

“He’s one of the best pitchers we have. So he’s going to be fine. A couple bad starts. It’s part of the game, part of the season. He just needs to keep his mentality strong and forget about what happened in the past and concentrate for the next one.”

Royals manager Mike Matheny boiled down Bubic’s recent struggles to not being able to consistently command his fastball at the bottom of the strike zone and the effect that has had on his changeup.

Andrew Benintendi and Carlos Santana both hit home runs for the Royals, while Salvador Perez had two hits including a double.

The Royals offense had been slow to get started throughout the first three games of the series. They hadn’t scored before the seventh inning in any of those three games, but they got on the board relatively quickly on Sunday.

The Royals loaded the bases with two outs in the second inning when Perez singled, Jorge Soler was hit by a pitch and Michael A. Taylor drew a two-out walk. Nicky Lopez’s line drive back up the middle hit Athletics starting pitcher Chris Bassitt (7-2) on the hip.

Bassitt gathered the ball and flipped it towards home plate as he fell flat on the turf, but Perez scored without a play at the plate. The next batter, Whit Merrifield, struck out on a called third strike to end the inning with the score tied 1-1.

“I think we still left some money on the table there, and had some opportunities to do something in the second,” Matheny said. “It was good to see Nicky put together a really good at-bat and at least get one. We’ve talked about that a number of times. We’re still looking for that big hit, that one that allows us to put a little space.”

Benintendi’s solo home run to left field in the third inning gave the Royals their second run of the day.

However, they did not score again until Carlos Santana’s solo home run in the seventh inning.

The Royals appeared poised to have two men on with no outs and Benintendi due up in the fifth trailing by two. Santana hustled on a grounder to second baseman Tony Kemp, but was called out. Replay showed that Kemp’s throw pulled first baseman Olson off the base, and the Royals challenged.

However, replay review upheld the ruling. Instead of no outs and two on with Benintendi and Perez due up, there was one on and one out. The Royals ended up stranding two men on base in that inning.

“I didn’t go out and ask for an explanation,” Matheny said. “They’re not going to give you one except for the obvious — they didn’t see what we saw from our angle. I was surprised it was taking as long as it was to get the information from our replay because it looked obvious to me that he pulled his foot off the bag. Need to get a couple more angles. Sometimes we get fooled.”

The Royals went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position on Sunday, and were 7 for 43 ( a .162 batting average) for the seven-game West Coast road trip.