Quatraro pointed to two early throwing errors after the Royals dropped their fourth game in a row.
The Kansas City Royals lost their fourth straight game on Friday night in Arlington, falling 9-1 to the Texas Rangers.
Most of the damage came in a single four-run first inning, where two of those runs scored on Royals throwing errors.
Manager Matt Quatraro did not dance around the result afterward, and he kept the blame on the defense and the routine plays his team failed to finish.
A Costly First Inning
The Rangers pushed all of their first-inning runs across with two outs.
After Ezequiel Duran lined a two-run single to center, the inning got away from Kansas City.
Duran came around on second baseman Nick Loftin's throwing error, then Noah Carter scored on a double steal when Salvador Perez's throw sailed away, and the Royals were down four before Stephen Kolek could escape the frame.
Two of those runs were unearned, more sloppy defense from a team stuck in a long stretch of uneven baseball.
Quatraro broke down the Loftin play in plain terms.
"I mean, you've got to convert outs, right? Loftin, I felt like just didn't set his feet with the throw on the run. The ball just sailed on him and Vinnie tried to hang on the bag as long as he could," Quatraro said.
When the Throw Sailed
The second error came on a steal that the Rangers turned into a free run, and Quatraro chalked it up to a mix-up.
As he explained it, Perez heard the sound coming from the Texas dugout and tried to change his throw at the last second.
"They were going to run that steal and stop. I know Salvy heard the third base coach scream, so I think he was trying to either hold up or redirect, and that's why the ball flew," Quatraro said.
Kolek deserved better than the final line, since he settled in after the rocky first and kept the Royals within range until Brandon Nimmo took him deep for two in the fifth.
The early cushion was all MacKenzie Gore needed, and the lineup stayed quiet for most of the night against the Texas left-hander.
That has turned into a pattern, with the Royals holding the worst record in the majors against left-handed starters, and the bats did not wake up until Vinnie Pasquantino's ninth-inning single ended a scoreless run that had stretched well past twenty innings.
Stuck in a Slump
The loss dropped Kansas City to 22-35 and fourth in the American League Central, a season-worst 13 games under .500.
This roster looked like the contender many around the game expected coming into the year, and now it is a club that ranks near the bottom of the majors in runs scored while the defense keeps making things harder.
Texas climbed to 26-31 by cashing in on the early gifts, and Kansas City stays in Arlington for two more games this weekend with the same two problems following it everywhere, a shaky defense and a lineup that cannot score.
