Schreiber was an out away from a clean seventh inning in Detroit before one swing flipped the game.
John Schreiber took the ball for the seventh inning at Comerica Park on Thursday night holding a two-run lead, and he got within one out of a clean handoff before two soft hits found open grass.
James Outman turned around a 2-2 fastball that landed just over the wall in right field for a three-run homer.
A 2-0 Kansas City lead became a 3-2 hole on one swing, and the Royals never fully climbed out of it in what ended as a 4-3 loss.
Taking the Blame Himself
Schreiber could have pointed at the soft contact that set the inning up, since neither hit ahead of Outman was struck hard, but he went the other direction with reporters.
"That was probably the most frustrating game, for me, of the year," Schreiber said, per MLB.com. "It was good to see [Michael] Massey get us started there next inning and get us back in it, but I feel like I lost that one for us tonight."
Trending Up
The frustration makes more sense with the rest of his year attached to it.
Schreiber has pitched 39 1/3 innings across 43 appearances, and even with Thursday folded in he sits at a 3.89 ERA with a 1.35 WHIP and one save, which is roughly the pitcher Kansas City has had for three seasons.
For long stretches this year he was the steadiest arm in a bullpen that struggled to protect much of anything, and that is a big reason his name keeps surfacing with the Aug. 3 trade deadline closing in.
What sits underneath the ERA is less encouraging.
His strikeout rate has dropped to about 6.6 per nine innings, easily the lowest of his career, and he has already given up seven home runs in those 39 1/3 innings after allowing 10 across 64 innings a year ago.
The contact he allows keeps doing more damage than it used to.
Why This One Hurt More
Kansas City had won five of six coming in, including a sweep of the Giants that ended with Salvador Perez tying George Brett's franchise home run record.
Randy Dobnak had handed them five scoreless innings, Isaac Collins broke the tie with a two-run homer in the sixth, and Josh Rojas pulled the game even again in the eighth before Steven Cruz gave up Dillon Dingler's go-ahead double in the bottom half.
The Royals also stranded 10 runners and went 1-for-10 with men in scoring position, so the bullpen was hardly working alone.
At 43-61, they are last in the American League Central, staring at a Detroit club that has won 14 of 19 and pushed back into the playoff picture at 49-54.
Kansas City has been fielding calls on its relievers, and the front office spent this month sorting through what it wants to move before the deadline.
Schreiber is a free agent this winter, and a three-run homer in a one-run game is not the audition he wanted with 10 days left.
