Pirates pummeled by Royals, ending 4-game winning streak

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Friday night loss to Kansas City couldn’t totally be boiled down to a single play, yet one sequence in the second inning undoubtedly was killer in their 8-3 defeat by the Royals at PNC Park.

With one out, starter Luis Ortiz committed a throwing error to first base and things spiraled from there.

Kansas City collected three straight hits with men on base, followed by a two-run homer from Salvador Perez to take a 6-0 lead.

Ortiz was unable to stabilize, requiring 47 pitches before finally ending the frame.

“You can’t make a mistake to a team that’s a really good team that creates runs,” manager Derek Shelton said postgame. “We made the one mistake, and that inning kind of snowballed on us.”

The Pirates (70-77) attempted an end-of-game rally in the ninth, scoring a pair of runs. They managed one in the sixth, as well, but it was not enough.

Ortiz (6-6, 3.45 ERA) lasted four innings, allowing seven runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

Royals starter Alec Marsh dominated, striking out 11 in 5 1/3 innings, picking up the win.

Ortiz’s rough second inning began with a walk of Robbie Grossman.

That led to his wild throw on a dribbler by Adam Frazier, which got past Rowdy Tellez, putting men on second and third with one out for Yuli Gurriel, who hit an RBI single.

“After that throwing error to first base, I tried to put myself back together again, do my best, but it did not happen,” Ortiz said through Pirates assistant coach and translator Stephen Morales.

“Just rushing myself there — not putting myself in a position to make a good throw.”

Kyle Isbel then battled Ortiz through a 10-pitch at-bat to deliver an RBI double, making it 2-0 Kansas City.

From there, the Royals kept piling on as Tommy Pham hit a two-run single to clear the bases and give his club a 4-0 advantage.

Then, Perez hit his 27th homer of the year, a two-run shot.

“I didn’t think (Ortiz’s) stuff was bad,” Shelton said. “Four-pitch walk to Grossman and then Frazier hits a ball about eight feet, then we throw it away. From there, it was just the extension of at-bats.

“They just kept fouling balls off, fouling balls off, fouling balls off and extending at-bats, then got a couple mistakes. We make one play, the whole complexion of the game probably changes.”

In the third, Ortiz settled down and struck out the side, but the Royals went up 7-0 in the fourth when Isbel hit his eighth homer of the year, a solo shot to right-center field.

The Pirates finally got on the board in the sixth when Joey Bart singled home Oneil Cruz, who led off with a double.

That made the score 7-1 and led to Marsh’s departure at 96 pitches.

Royals reliever Carlos Hernandez finished the inning, avoiding further damage.

After Ortiz exited, Joey Wentz delivered two scoreless frames, with Kyle Nicolas taking over in the seventh.

Nicolas stayed on and recorded two outs in the eighth, but Frazier took him deep for a solo homer over the Clemente Wall to make it an 8-1 score.

In the ninth, Reynolds made it 8-2 with a sacrifice fly after the Pirates loaded the bases.

With runners on first and second, a Cruz RBI single made it 8-3.

Andrew McCutchen then flew out to end the game.

The Pirates struck out 14 times and left 10 men on base in the loss.