By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Royals bullpen soiled a solid start from Cole Ragans, surrendering two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as Kansas City fell to the Rockies 4-2 in Denver on Friday night.
The Royals took an early lead in the first inning after Salvador Perez singled to score Bobby Witt Jr who doubled in his at bat. Kansas City held the 1-0 until the third inning, when controversy struck.
With a 2-2 count and one out, first baseman Michael Toglia would hit a home run to left center field. Manager Matt Quatraro would challenge the home run call, contending there was fan interference, but after the review umpires ruled the call stood, and the game was tied at one a piece.
The Royals would take the lead back in the fourth though, Garrett Hampson driving in Freddy Fermin on a fielders choice out. The Rockies would tie it up again in sixth with Brendan Rodgers scoring on a single from Elias Diaz.
Ragans was pushed to the limit in the start, pitching seven innings and throwing 106 pitches, striking out five and walking one giving up the two runs. John Schreiber would come on in relief in the eighth inning.
The eighth is where disaster struck, the Rockies getting to the Royals bullpen which has struggled much of the season. With the bases loaded against Schreiber, after a walk to Diaz, Brendan Doyle would hit a ground rule double scoring two and putting the Rockies ahead for good.
Kansas City did make some noise in the ninth inning, with Fermin and Nick Loftin leading the inning off with back to back singles, but nothing would come of it as the game ended on a groundout from Maikel Garcia.
Seth Lugo is set to start game two of the series on Saturday for Kansas City against Austin Gomber for the Rockies. First pitch is at 8:10pm with pregame at 7:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).