Billy Butler singled for the Royals to begin the 2nd inning. In the 4rd inning, Luke Scott led off the inning with a hustle double. Matthew Joyce walked in the 4th. Lorenzo Cain singled in the 6th. Desmond Jennings walked in the 6th. Ben Zobrist walked in the 7th. Eric Hosmer singled in the 8th. That sounds like a lot of baserunners in the game from the 1st until the 8th innings. But it really is not. Luke Hochevar allowed the lone hit to Scott and 3 walks. David Price allowed only hits to Butler, Cain, and Hosmer. Hochevar went 8 innings allowing just the 1 hit, striking out 10 while walking 3. Price also went 8 innings allowing just the 3 hits, striking out 8 while walking none. Hochevar threw 105 pitches, 65 strikes; Price threw 114 pitches, 80 strikes. Both leaned heavily on their fastballs and cutters. And both dominated.

In the 9th, Fernando Rodney allowed a walk but worked around it with 2 strikeouts. Kelvin Herrera worked the bottom of the inning and allowed 1 hit but worked around it, striking out 1. The two teams were as evenly matched as it gets on this night. Nothing but luck alone was going to end the deadlock.

Joel Peralta got two quick outs to begin the 10th and seemed like he had worked a quick inning when Jeff Francoeur hit a groundball to deep short. Ben Zobrist made a great play to field the ball but made an ill-advised throw that went wide of first and back to the screen, allowing Francoeur to advance to second base on his error. Peralta then got Eric Hosmer out in front on a changeup and forced a weak flyball to center. However, it was weak enough that it dropped in front of B.J. Upton for a bloop hit, and that would prove to be the difference as Greg Holland worked a perfect 9th for the save as the Royals won 1-0. Herrera (1-1) earned the win, Peralta (0-1) took a tough loss after giving up the unearned run, and Holland nailed down his 6th save. The Rays got a dose of their own medicine as Hochevar matched Price inning after inning and a couple of bad breaks in the 10th cost the Rays the game. The Rays got great pitching once again, this time for Price, but saw their offense crumble before Hochevar and Royals pitching and lost 1-0 to bookend their 5-game winning streak with 1-0 losses. At least this one was a 2-hitter by Kansas City and far from a perfect game. The Rays look to rebound tomorrow as James Shields takes the hill against the Royals’ Luis Mendoza. The Rays hope to get great pitching once again, and this time to get the type of offense that fueled their winning streak to deliver them to a series win verus the Royals.

On the mound with his stuff deserting him, Cobb somehow refused to wilt. (Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE)

Alex Cobb did not have his best stuff at on Monday night. Alex Cobb is never an overpowering pitcher and on this night, his command was off and his pitches were as hittable as ever. His signature changeup was staying up in the zone. His fastball was missing. His curveball was non-existent. And the runs didn’t stop. Mike Moustakas doubled in a run in the first. Then the Royals got 7 hits and 5 runs in the third inning, and the inning only ended on a baserunning blunder by Salvador Perez on his RBI single. Then Yuniesky Betancourt got a sac fly in the 4th and Cobb was down 7-0. But Cobb wasn’t done. He couldn’t be. The Rays bullpen was shot. They were coming off a doubleheader and all of Game 2 was entirely pitched by relievers. Cobb had to give the Rays everything he had. And he did just that. Cobb battled. He gutted out a game he had no business being in. Cobb went the complete game, allowing 8 runs on 13 hits in 8 innings a nightmare of an outing but saving the Rays from burning out their already exhausted bullpen. Cobb was the first pitcher to throw a complete game allowing 8 earned runs or more since Randy Johnson in 1998. Cobb struck out just 1 while walking none and posted a 16-4 groudnout to flyout ratio. Cobb wasn’t missing any bats with his pitches. He wasn’t fooling anybody. But he just stayed composed, not letting his emotions get the best of him, and just continued pitching as everything went wrong. Cobb, threw the same amount of pitches as Hochevar, 113, and actually threw one more strike. But this wasn’t his best night, not by a longshot. However, hee may have been the Rays’ MVP in this game nevertheless. The Rays lost this game, and lost it in embarrassing fashion 8-0. But thanks to Cobb, they have a chance to win the war. The Rays lost tonight. But with a rested bullpen, they’ll look to take the next two games of this series and put this game on the backburner. Chris Archer goes against the Royals’ Bruce Chen on Tuesday.