Taylor Motter, the Mariners’ utility player, took the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning because that’s how bad it was.
And the third pitch he threw, traveling 67.5-mph, Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas teed off for a home run to make it 10-0.
But as far as the box score knows, Motter’s pitching wasn’t the worst the Mariners had this day.
Their 10-run, shutout loss was in every way a rough one, and one they’ll try to forget before the next two games of this series in Kansas City in their final series of this seven-game, 11-day road trip before returning to Seattle.