ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Jordan Lyles hasn’t had much to smile about this season.
That finally changed Saturday.
Lyles ended a 15-game winless streak and the lowly Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9-4 for their second victory in three days against the team with the best record in the majors.
“He had a big smile on his face when we came up the stairs [postgame],” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “The guys were ribbing him a little bit. He’s got a lot of pride in what he does. He’s handled himself tremendously well through this streak, so it feels really good for him.”
Lyles (1-11) allowed four runs and eight hits over six innings. It was his first victory since his final start last year on Sept. 30 while playing for the Baltimore Orioles. The 15-game stretch marked the longest winless streak to begin a season in American or National League history, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
“It feels really good,” Lyles said. “Even more so just how well we played all the way around team-wise. Just a really good team all around win.”
Drew Waters, Freddy Fermín and Edward Olivares homered for the Royals, who have MLB’s second-worst record at 22-55.
Lyles retired his final eight batters before relievers Carlos Hernández worked a 1-2-3 seventh and Nick Wittgren went two perfect innings.
Tampa Bay (53-27) is 5-7 over its past 12 games including two losses to Oakland, which has the worst record in the major leagues.
“We’re not firing on all cylinders right now,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I think we’re in a tough stretch. Wins just haven’t come easy for us. Today, give the Royals credit, they put it to us.”
Rays shortstop Wander Franco returned after being benched for two games for how he was handled frustrating situations this season and hit a 417-foot solo homer during a two-run first. He added an RBI single in a two-run second.
Waters got his third homer, and second in three days, as the Royals scored three times in the third to make it 4-3.
Fermin hit a three-run homer off Yonny Chirinos (3-3) during a four-run fourth as the Royals rebounded to go up 7-4. Bobby Witt Jr. drove in his second run with a run-scoring double.
“Coming from behind was nice,” Quatraro said. “Getting down four, things didn’t look great. To keep adding on was a nice thing.”
Nick Pratto made it 8-4 in the sixth on his second RBI grounder. Olivares went deep against Zack Littell in the eighth.
Chirinos allowed eight runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.
CINCINNATI — Rookie Chase Burns became the first starting pitcher in the expansion era to strike out the first five batters he faced in his major league debut.
He was not able to carry the momentum through the rest of the game.
The 22-year old Cincinnati Reds right-hander, the second overall pick in last July’s amateur draft, allowed three runs over five innings Tuesday night in a 5-4, 11-inning win over the New York Yankees.
Burns struck out his first five batters before Jazz Chisholm Jr‘s single. He gave up six hits and struck out eight, the seventh Cincinnati starter to have at least that many in his first career start.
“We watched for everything,” Reds manager Terry Francona said of Burns. “He didn’t get too excited. I think he enjoyed the competition. There’s a lot to like.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Burns also joined the Yankees’ Al Leiter and Tampa Bay’s Wade Davis as the only pitchers since 1961 whose first six outs in their debuts were strikeouts. Both gave up a run during the first two innings.
Burns struck out seven of the his first 10 hitters and allowed only one hit until Ben Rice led off the fourth by connecting on a hanging slider that went 413 feet and two-thirds of the way into the right field sun deck at Great American Ball Park.
Aaron Judge followed with a base hit. Burns retired the next two hitters, Chisholm got aboard with a single and Anthony Volpe hit a two-run triple when center fielder TJ Friedl made an ill-advised dive and the ball got by him.
“I think he’s a good pitcher,” Francona said. “I don’t think him giving up a couple runs is going to make somebody fold. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have brought him up.”
Burns averaged 98.1 mph with 48 fastballs, topping out with a pair at 100.1 mph in the first inning. He threw 24 sliders, eight changeups and one curveball. New York was 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in his first time through the order and 5-for-9 with a triple and home run the second time through.
Burns threw 53 of 81 pitches for strikes. His first big league pitch was a 98.4 mph fastball to Trent Grisham that just caught the inside corner of the plate. He got Judge to chase a 91.1 mile slider for the third out in the first inning.
“I guess you have to say Judge. I have watched him. He’s a big dude and one of the best hitters in the game,” Burns said when asked if any one strikeout stood out more than the others. “It was probably my favorite one.”
Burns fell behind 3-0 on three of the first 10 batters before ending up with strikeouts, and started 11 of 21 batters with strikes and induced 12 swing and misses. He is the fifth first-round selection from last year’s draft to reach the majors, joining Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone, Angels second baseman Christian Moore and Astros outfielder Cam Smith, who was selected by the Cubs before going to Houston in the Kyle Tucker trade last December.
“Of course,” Bochy said. “He’s a weapon whether he starts or he’s in the bullpen, but he’s stretched out. You’ve heard me say he’s got starter’s stuff.”
Latz took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Tuesday night against Baltimore, and although the Rangers blew a four-run lead, they recovered to win 6-5 in 10 innings. Latz set career highs in innings pitched (six-plus) and pitches (88) and lowered his ERA on the season to 3.22.
“I don’t know the plans going forward. I was kind of just trying to soak it all up today,” Latz said. “It was just a lot of fun out there.”
In his third career start and second of the season, Latz didn’t allow a hit until Ramon Laureano singled to center to start the bottom of the seventh. A walk later, Latz was removed, but a 4-0 Texas lead didn’t last much longer.
Latz walked three and struck out four — including the last three hitters of the fifth inning. His previous longest outing in the majors was Thursday, when he threw 5 2/3 innings of relief in a loss to Kansas City.
“That’s one of the better jobs in all of baseball — to be a starting pitcher,” Latz said. “I’m not going to say I don’t want to be a starting pitcher. Obviously I do. I’m comfortable either way obviously. If it’s in the rotation, it’s great.”
MILWAUKEE — Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz said he lost track of the outs when he didn’t run out a double-play grounder, a move that led to his removal in his club’s 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.
The Pirates trailed 7-3 and had a runner on first with one out in the seventh when Cruz grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Cruz slowed down after the Brewers got the force play at second, and he said afterward he believed that was the third out of the inning.
Pirates manager Don Kelly removed Cruz in favor of a defensive replacement in the eighth inning and said it was due to Cruz’s “energy and effort going down the line.” Cruz said after the game he understood Kelly’s decision.
“DK had all the rights to do what he did, and I’ll back him up on that,” Cruz said through an interpreter. “It was my fault because I thought there were two outs in that situation. That’s why I let off running to first base.”
Kelly said he explained to Cruz the reason for the benching.
“We talked,” Kelly said. “He knows the expectation. Right there, I feel we fell a little short.”
When he was asked whether Cruz would be back in the starting lineup Wednesday, Kelly was noncommittal.
“We’re going to sit down and talk, and we’ll figure that out,” Kelly said.
Cruz, 26, has batted just .156 (12-of-77) with 31 strikeouts this month after having a productive start to the season that included owning a .911 OPS in early May and hitting a 122.9 mph homer against the Brewers on May 25. That homer was the hardest-hit ball since Statcast started tracking that data in 2015.
Cruz is now hitting .208 with a .321 on-base percentage, a .404 slugging percentage, 13 homers, 31 RBIs and 26 steals in 71 games.
“He’s struggling at the plate right now,” Kelly said. “It’s difficult when you’re going through that and trying to figure it out. He’s working hard to do that. That’s one thing we’ve got to be mindful of, is not letting that offense carry over to defense and base running, and the energy and effort that we’re giving on any other aspects of the game as well.”
Cruz said his hitting slump “had nothing to do with what happened today” and isn’t impacting his focus on the basepaths or in the field. But he also said he appreciated Kelly’s instructions to him and noted how he can learn from veteran teammates Andrew McCutchen and Tommy Pham.
“They’re a really good example,” Cruz said. “They always run hard. They always go out there to do their 100%. That’s a teaching point for me. I accepted the way DK came to me and explained it and presented it to me.”