Walks will kill your team. It happened in the sixth inning for the Royals. Kyle Davies pitched well through 5.2 innings. He got run support on solo home runs from Jose Guillen and Miguel Olivo which tied the score at 2-2, but things went downhill from there.
After getting Evan Longoria to ground out and Carlos Guillen to strike out, Davies’ seventh of the night, he lost control walking Willy Aybar and Ben Zobrist. Davies left the game with six walks and those last two proved the deadliest as Horacio Ramirez came on in relief and gave up a two run double to Rays’ outfielder Matt Joyce to break the tie.
The Rays added two more runs in the eighth to hand the Royals their fifth loss in a row. Up 1-0 on Guillen’s homer in the second, Davies walked Aybar in the fourth and Zobrist homered to give Tampa a 2-1 lead, but Olivo answered in the fifth off Rays’ starter Andy Sonnastine with a solo home run to left.
Sonnastine went 6.2 innings allowing just those two solo home runs as Tampa’s bullpen held the Royals hitless over the final 2.1 innings while racking up five of the final seven outs on strikeouts.
The Royals drop 5.5 games behind Detroit in the AL Central.
