Lyles rebounds after rough 1st, but Royals' 4 HRs not enough

NEW YORK -- Right-hander Jordan Lyles had one bad inning, and it proved costly as the Royals were defeated by the Yankees, 8-5, on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Lyles ended up with his Major League leading 12th loss of the season. It also marked the 10th time the Royals were swept in a series, and they are currently tied with the Athletics for the fewest wins (28) in MLB. The Royals are a young team and on a five-game losing streak, but manager Matt Quatraro is focusing on the positives the team has displayed on the field.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are or how many years of experience you have or don’t have: When you lose, it’s frustrating,” Quatraro said. “These guys are competitors. We come out everyday and play and give our best effort. We put in the work. The wins and losses have been very poor. It’s not acceptable. It’s not good enough. It’s not what we aspire to be as we move forward, but the effort is there. That’s the kind of thing you can be proud of.”

The way Sunday’s game started, it looked like Lyles might not get out of the first inning. The first four hitters he faced reached base, and all of them scored. Gleyber Torres highlighted the scoring with a two-run homer.

After that unforgettable inning, however, Lyles settled down and allowed a run on four hits during the next four innings.

“I would say command picked up a little bit better after that first inning,” Lyles said. “[I] struggled. Everything that they swung at, they were hitting hard in the first inning. Good lineups can put a crooked number on you.

“We went scoreless in three of the next four innings. I think the command was better. My breaking balls, we were able to land them a little bit better and we got ahead of guys.”

The Royals had a chance to get Lyles off the hook and give him a no-decision. In the third inning, Kansas City was down, 5-0, but the team made it a game by the sixth inning off right-hander Luis Severino. The Royals scored their first run in the fourth on a home run by Salvador Perez. Two innings later, Michael Massey hit a two-run bomb.

In the eighth inning, the Royals had runners on first and third, one out and the go-ahead run at the plate. But Yankees reliever Michael King managed to get out of the jam when he struck out Perez and Massey.

“[My] last at-bat, we have guys at first and third. … I should be more patient and walk to first base and [let the next at-bat] go to the next guy,” Perez said. “I tried to do too much in that situation. Things like that, you just have to be patient. Take what they give you.”

The Royals then let the game get away in the eighth inning with Scott Barlow on the mound. The Yankees had the bases loaded when Oswaldo Peraza hit a grounder that hit the tip of Nick Pratto’s glove at first base. Pratto fielded the ball and tried to get Peraza at first base, but the throw went past Barlow for an error, which allowed Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu to score. Billy McKinney then scored an insurance run on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Higashioka.

The Royals didn’t go down easily in the ninth, as Freddy Fermin and Kyle lsbel hit solo homers, but they fell short and picked up another loss. The team has 61 games left to show improvement on the diamond.

“We are trying to fight through it the best way we can,” Massey said. “Learn everything we can while we are here, because it’s not going to be forever. At some point, we are going to make the rise up. We have to take the lessons now and apply.”