Kansas City's 22 runs allowed matched the most in franchise history.
Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro wasn't interested in searching for a complicated explanation after Friday night's 22-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Quatraro had just watched his club allow a franchise-record-tying 22 runs, fall behind by double digits before the game was halfway over and absorb a second consecutive lopsided defeat. Yet when asked to assess what went wrong, Quatraro's answer repeatedly returned to the same conclusion: there wasn't one thing to point to.
"It was obviously a tough night all the way around," Quatraro said postgame, via MLB.com. "Everything went their way early on. They hit a bunch of homers, and later on, everything found a hole."
Kansas City entered the series opener already trying to move past Thursday's 13-2 loss to Tampa Bay. Instead, the problems only multiplied. The Royals have now been outscored 35-3 over their last two games, a stretch that has turned what was recently a promising run of baseball into one of the roughest sequences of their season.
Mitch Spence was unable to follow Steven Cruz's fast start, giving up 10 runs while recording only four outs. The bullpen surrendered runs in bunches behind him while the offense could only muster up a single run. But Quatraro viewed the game less as a collection of individual failures and more as one of those nights where momentum snowballs beyond control.
Even while discussing relievers who allowed damaging runs later in the game, Quatraro pointed out the unusual path several innings took.
Quatraro noted postgame via MLB.com that John Schreiber's outing stemmed from small sequences that eventually unraveled into Tristan Peters' grand slam. He offered a similar assessment of Alex Lange, praising the right-hander despite the results.
That doesn't excuse the final score. Quatraro was blunt about that reality when speaking with reporters following the loss.
"That was one of the worst games you could have right there on both sides of the ball," Quatraro said, via MLB.com's Anne Rogers. "It was terrible."
Baseball's schedule rarely allows teams much time to dwell on a single loss, even one this ugly. The Royals were back at the ballpark less than 24 hours later preparing for another game. Players echoed that reality afterward, with both Michael Massey and Spence emphasizing the need to move forward rather than carry Friday into the rest of the road trip.
Some losses invite deep analysis. Friday's may have been so extreme that the Royals are better served treating it exactly the way Quatraro described it. A terrible night that seemed to go wrong in every possible way.
