The Royals losing streak reached 17 games on Tuesday with a 4-3 loss to the Mariners in Seattle. Kansas City blew a two-run lead and a one-run lead early on. In the eighth inning, shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt drove in the winning run off Jeremy Affeldt with a two-out infield single to drive in Jeremy Reed. Earlier in the at-bat, Reed stole second base.
Kansas City failed mount a comeback in the ninth, as Angel Berroa, Mark Teahen and John Buck all went down in order.
The Royals took a 2-0 lead in the fist inning thanks to an RBI single from Matt Stairs and a run-scoring sacrifice fly off the bat of Emil Brown. But that lead evaporated in the bottom half of the inning thanks to two RBI singles from former Royal Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre.
David DeJesus allowed Kansas City to regain the lead in the second with a sacrifice fly which scored Buck from third. Again, the lead was lost soon after, as Beltre drove in his second run of the night with a sacrifice fly of his own to score Ibanez.
If there was any good news, it was that Zack Greinke didn’t add to his major league-leading loss total of 14—the loss went to Jeremy Affeldt, who served up the Bettancourt’s RBI single. He’s 0-2.