Before the end, before the bullpen broke down Saturday in a 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians, before Joakim Soria coughed up a lead in the eighth and Kelvin Herrera served up consecutive homers in the ninth, the Royals went about losing a baseball game in a less dramatic, more subtle way.
They did not score. They managed one run off Indians starter Josh Tomlin, who entered the afternoon with an 8.87 ERA in five starts and was troubled to throw just 76 pitches in seven innings at Kauffman Stadium. They came up with nothing against the Indians’ vaunted bullpen duo of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.