Pirates go from bad to worse as Royals sweep series with 11-0 victory

Bothered by a blister and a cuticle, Chad Kuhl had no command on his fastball from the start, and it didn’t take long for the Pittsburgh Pirates to watch their game against the Kansas City Royals spin out of control.

What transpired was a comedy of errors and their biggest blowout loss of the season, as the Pirates hit rock bottom Sunday afternoon by succumbing to a series sweep against the worst team on their schedule.

The Royals got a dozen hits, eight walks and a shutout from Brad Keller to cruise to an 11-0 victory at Kauffman Stadium, the sixth straight win for the last-place team in the AL Central.

The Pirates (14-30), who remain in last place in the NL Central, dropped their fourth consecutive game as Kuhl gave up nine runs on four hits and six walks in only 2 1/3 innings, hitting a batter and throwing a wild pitch that hit the home plate umpire in the mask.

Kuhl (1-2, 5.50 ERA) called it “frustrating,” saying he had no fastball command and instead went “very breaking ball heavy.”

“As soon as we kind of figured out that I really couldn’t throw a fastball, we just kind of showed it just hoping it would end up in a good location,” Kuhl said, “but we went to all breaking ball stuff just to try to get some quick outs, but I just didn’t have it.”

That was obvious from the start: a four-run first inning that saw Kuhl give up two hits and three walks along with a costly wild pitch. Kuhl walked Whit Merrifield on four pitches and gave up a one-out single to Salvador Perez. When JT Riddle bobbled a potential double-play ball on Maikel Franco’s grounder to third base — ruled a hit by the official scorer — Merrifield scored. Perez then scored for a 2-0 lead when Josh Bell was too slow to turn a play on Alex Gordon’s slow grounder to first.

“As inconsistent as Chad was, he should have been out of the first,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “The ruling on the ball hit to Riddle is atrocious. That’s en error. That’s an error all day long. I don’t know why they ruled it a hit. If that’s the case, we’ll take the official scorer home with us. Because that’s atrocious on that ball. I guarantee if you ask JT Riddle, he’s going to tell you, he should have made that play.

“Then we had to make the play with Bell, and it ended up costing Kuhl runs. Again, we could have been out of that inning, and we have to make plays. We didn’t make ‘em tonight. Not only did it cost us runs, it cost us pitches. It cost us a shortness in Chad’s outing and giving him the opportunity to get back in the game and be able to execute pitches. We’ve seen him good. We’ve seen him struggle at times. But then we’ve seen him bounce back and be able to execute. We didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

A cross-up between Kuhl and catcher John Ryan Murphy led to two more runs. Murphy was expecting a breaking ball but got a high fastball that sailed over his glove and hit home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak of Murrysville in the face mask. Instead of chasing the ricocheted ball, Murphy checked on Rehak “to make sure he’s all right.” Franco and Hunter Dozier scored to give the Royals a 4-0 lead.

“When there are wild pitches and the ball hits the catcher, he’s got a general idea on the direction of where that ball goes. When you get crossed up, you don’t get anything on it, and it hits the umpire. It’s one of those plays that’s really strange. It’s a freak play,” Shelton said. “We were yelling at him. I think he got a little disoriented on where the play was and didn’t find the ball.”

Perez hit Kuhl’s first pitch of the third inning 440 feet for his fifth homer and a 5-0 Royals lead. Franco singled, Kuhl hit Dozier with a pitch and walked Gordon to load the bases, then Nick Heath drew a walk to make it 6-0.

Reliever Nick Tropeano didn’t fare much better, inheriting loaded bases and walking Nicky Lopez to make it 7-0. Merrifield hit a two-run single to right for a 9-0 lead as the Royals batted around the order. Perez drove in Lopez with a single for a 10-0 lead.

Dozier drilled a 3-1 fastball by Dovydas Neverauskas 442 feet to left field for an 11-0 lead in the sixth.

The Royals loaded the bases again in the eighth, when manager Mike Matheny challenged the final out. Pirates Murphy was called for catcher’s interference on Heath’s fly out to left. Austin Davis replaced Richard Rodriguez and got Lopez to ground out.

Keller (4-2, 2.06 ERA) allowed five hits and one walk to earn his first career shutout. The 25-year-old right-hander attacked the strike zone and, despite throwing 73 of his 110 pitches for strikes, had only two strikeouts. He pitched to contact, giving up one extra-base hit: a double by Murphy in the sixth. Keller gave up back-to-back hits to Colin Moran and Bell in the ninth before getting Gregory Polanco to fly out.

“He’s pitched well all year,” Shelton said of Keller. “He continues to fill up the zone. He gets contact and keeps guys sharp. He’s going. He’s rapid. And he’s pitching really well. You can see, having seen him last year in the division, this kid is maturing into a really good pitcher.”