Royals offense sputters in 5-1 loss to Blue Jays in first game of doubleheader

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Mike Minor came out on the losing end of a battle of left-handed pitchers in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Blue Jays southpaw Steven Matz held the Royals without a hit through the first 5 1/3 innings. The Royals offense got on the board with a run in the sixth, but they couldn’t rally from a four-run deficit and fell 5-1 in a seven-inning game in front of an announced crowd of 9,048 at Kauffman Stadium.

“Matz was throwing the ball well,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He just had good late movement. You could tell guys weren’t seeing the late movement really bearing in, using the backdoor, using top. He didn’t have a lot of chase, but he controlled the tempo of the game, no doubt about it.”

The Royals (7-5) saw their three-game win streak snapped. They had just two men reach base in the first five innings on walks by Whit Merrifield in the first inning and Jorge Soler in the fifth.

Infielder Nicky Lopez broke-up Matz’s no-hitter in the sixth with an opposite-field single that looped in down the left-field line, and left fielder Andrew Benintendi’s two-out RBI double scored Lopez and gave the Royals their first run.

Lopez had grounded out in his previous at-bat against Matz.

“You know he’s got that no-no going and there’s like two innings left,” Lopez said. “I’m just trying to put the bat on the ball. He was throwing it in and out effectively, had the off-speed working, throwing the changeups to both righties and lefties. He was in a groove.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play. Obviously, with two strikes you’re not trying to do too much. Just put the bat on the ball and see what happens. I got the fastball and was able to make contact, and it just found a hole in left.”

The Royals got two runners on in the seventh inning with Carlos Santana’s walk, the 1,000th of his MLB career, and when a pitch hit Soler. However, a double play wiped out two runners and the Royals faded in the final inning.

Santana joined Albert Pujols (1,333 entering Saturday), Joey Votto (1,219 entering Saturday) and Miguel Cabrera (1,162 entering Saturday) as the only active players with 1,000 walks. Santana also eclipsed 800 career RBIs earlier this season.

“Happy and blessed,” Santana said. “I mean, 1,000 walks. I’m happy for that, another point for my career. What I say is: Thank you, God. Thank you God for giving me 1,000 walks in my career. It’s a blessing.”

Minor allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out three.

The Blue Jays (7-7) scored a pair of first-inning runs on Lourdes Gurriel’s two-run double.

The other two runs Minor allowed came on solo home runs by Jonathan Davis in the fifth and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the sixth.

“I had some good defensive plays behind me,” Minor said. “I feel like the strike zone was a little tight. … I wasn’t getting ahead, I was getting behind a lot of guys. Then I felt like the changeup wasn’t good until later on in the game. Then I got some ground balls with it. Then I gave up the home runs, a couple broke-bat hits. I, obviously, thought I could do better.”