Royals’ Duffy loses no-hit bid in 8th inning vs Rays

Kansas City Royals pitcher Danny Duffy delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla. One of his best friends on the team was traded and then his opposing pitcher almost pitched a no-hitter.

Matt Duffy’s trade to the Tampa Bay Rays was a bummer for Giants fans.

Duffy’s 16 strikeouts were a Royals season high by five – Ian Kennedy had 11 for the previous high – and four more than any opponent has thrown against the Rays this season. “It was one of the few-and-far-between times that somebody has all of their pitches working the way they want”.

“It’s one of those things I was thinking about coming over here”, Moore said on his first day in a new clubhouse.

Tampa Bay Rays’ Chris Archer pitches to the Kansas City Royals during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Top 8, Royals lead 3-0: Alcides Escobar singles into left, scoring Paulo Orlando (single).

Kendrys Morales’ 18th home run, a towering shot over the center field wall off Rays starter Chris Archer, got the Royals on the scoreboard in the seventh. “Just unfortunate we couldn’t get anything going to get some runs for him”.

Duffy would leave the game after eight innings while Kelvin Herrera go the save by pitching a scoreless ninth inning. Davis and the Royals are hopeful he will be able to come off the disabled list when he becomes eligible August 12.

Archer only allowed multiple baserunners in two of his seven-plus innings of work, throwing first-pitch strikes to 18-of-28 batters faced while 69 of his 102 total pitches ended up as strikes in the books (56 swinging, 13 called, 43 fouls, 13 swings-and-misses). He will now be the everyday third baseman.

Cuthbert got a leadoff single in the fourth, but the Rays got out of the inning with a double play off the bat of Eric Hosmer. Bret Saberhagen pitched Kansas City’s last no-hitter nearly 25 years ago. I’d probably say that’s not the reason we lost the game. “It was something nice for me just to kind of start to think about weeks and months to come”, said now Giants pitcher Matt Moore.