KC Royals Johnny Cueto Struggles Again in 6-5 Loss

It may not have been as rough as his previous couple of outings for the KC Royals, but tonight’s performance was not what they were hoping to see from Johnny Cueto. Instead, he had another inconsistent outing as the Royals fell to the Detroit Tigers by the score of 6-5.

Detroit got to Cueto in the first, as the Royals defense giveth and taketh away. Anthony Gose led off with a base hit, then advanced to third as Alcides Escobar threw the ball away. After an out, Miguel Cabrera singled to left to plate Gose with the first run of the game. J.D. Martinez followed with a base hit, and took second as Lorenzo Cain cut down Cabrera attempting to get to third.

The Tigers added to the lead in the second. With runners on second and third and no one out, James McCann had an RBI ground out and Jose Iglesias followed with an RBI single to right to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

More from KC Royals News

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

Kansas City came back in the bottom of the inning. Eric Hosmer reached on an error, and a base hit by Kendrys Morales put runners on the corners. In his first plate appearance back from the disabled list, Alex Gordon hit a sacrifice fly to medium right, as Hosmer slid in ahead of the tag to give the Royals their first run of the game.

Both teams traded runs in the fourth. After Escobar cut down Tyler Collins as he attempted to score on a grounder to short for the second out of the inning, a hit batter and a base hit for Ian Kinsler extended the lead to 4-1. Kansas City got that run back as Morales hit a ball into the Pepsi Porch in the bottom of the inning.

In the seventh, the Tigers and Royals traded runs again. Kinsler hit a two run home run to deep left off Miguel Almonte, who made his major league debut. The Royals got those runs back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI ground out from Omar Infante and a two out single by Escobar. Kansas City cut the lead to one in the bottom of the eighth, as Salvador Perez‘ RBI single put runners at the corners with two out, but pinch hitter Mike Moustakas grounded out to end the threat.

Bruce Rondon closed out the ninth for Detroit, as they handed the KC Royals a 6-5 defeat. Cueto took the loss, allowing four runs on nine hits, striking out two in his six innings of work.

Perez was 3-4 with a run scored and an RBI in the loss.

Next: Royals Potential September Callups