Ejections and more bullpen woes for Kansas City Royals in their fourth straight loss

Both Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny and young starting pitcher Brady Singer share a mixture of intensity and competitiveness that makes them potential powder kegs under certain circumstances.

But when the usually mild-mannered, even-keeled pitching coach Cal Eldred came tearing out of the dugout breathing fire and flailing arms and pointing fingers as if he’d witnessed a crime against humanity, it was a definite sign that things had gotten out of hand on the field at Kauffman Stadium.

In the span of one batter, Matheny, Eldred and Singer were all ejected by home plate umpire and interim crew chief Angel Hernandez, the central figure in a controversial call the previous night, as tempers flared in a three-run inning that saw the Royals’ lead shrink.

The sixth-inning blow-up was one more point of frustration as the Royals lost their fourth in a row, 5-4, to the Cleveland Indians in front of an announced 9,640 in the ballpark on Wednesday night.

The Indians (16-13) clinched the four-game series, and the Royals (16-13) will try to avoid a sweep on Thursday afternoon.

“You can never take (emotion) out of the game, no matter how many replays you have that tell you what actually happened,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “Guys are going to let their emotions roll through because this means a lot to us. Regardless of what you see, you can’t just erase what you feel.”

The fireworks came in the top of the sixth with the Royals leading 4-0 and Singer on the mound. With one out and Jake Bauers having reached base on a walk, Hernandez ruled that Jose Ramirez had been hit by an inside pitch on a 2-2 count.

An initial look at the replay raised the question of whether the ball made contact with Ramirez or his bat. The Royals challenged the play, but the call stood upon review.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez was adamant that the ball “100 percent” hit the bat and he caught it for a foul-tipped third strike.

“I heard the bat,” Perez said. “I think that MLB, the people in New York should see that a little bit more closely because I heard the bat. They’re maybe confused about what they saw, maybe barely touched his fingers. That’s what they saw, but I heard his bat. It was a foul ball, foul tip.”

Singer was so visibly angry after the call and review that both Perez and second baseman Whit Merrifield were motioning for him to calm down. Singer then gave up a two-run double to Eddie Rosario followed by a walk to Franmil Reyes.

With Rosario and Reyes on, Singer committed a balk that was called by Hernandez. Matheny came out of the dugout and voiced his frustration with Hernandez. Just as Matheny had gotten back to the dugout, Hernandez signaled for an ejection of Eldred.

That prompted Eldred to storm out of the dugout, barking at Hernandez while Matheny put himself between Eldred and Hernandez. After Eldred left the playing field and headed back into the dugout, Matheny continued arguing with Hernandez and was also ejected.

“He threw somebody out,” Matheny said. “I didn’t know what he was doing, but he’d thrown Cal out at that point because I’d already said my piece. Cal was still hot. Apparently, (Hernandez) didn’t want to hear any more from the bench and so he threw somebody out. I didn’t know exactly what happened. Round Two, he didn’t like from me.”

Following an RBI groundout to first base that cut the Royals’ lead to 4-3, bench coach Pedro Grifol removed Singer from the game and brought in reliever Scott Barlow.

“I made some good pitches, I thought, in that inning,” Singer said. “Then you got in a situation. Then the balk was called, and just some things that kind of came out of nowhere. It just changes the whole game, honestly. It was definitely a crazy sixth inning. I thought I battled, and I was definitely fighting to get out of it.”

Singer, who made just his 18th career start, barked and gestured at Hernandez on his way toward the dugout and momentarily walked up nearly chest-to-chest with Hernandez before he ejected Singer as well. Merrifield sprinted from his position at second base to get between Singer and Hernandez and push Singer towards the dugout.

“It’s an emotional time,” Singer said. “Like I said, it changes every bit of the game. Skip and Cal came out and are obviously doing what they’re doing. I love that they have my back. It’s an emotional time. I’m out there wanting to pitch. I’m out there fighting for the team.

“It’s a big game. We’re trying to get back into the series. You’ve got that stuff going on. I’m fighting for the guys. I’m trying to get the win. You’ve got other factors that are into the game, and it sucks. I’m busting like hell trying to win the game.”

Even with Singer’s ejection on his way off of the field, Perez supported his young pitcher and insisted that the correct call wasn’t made on the hit by pitch.

“I think he handled it pretty good,” Perez said of Singer. “Sometimes you need to, you know, let them know. That’s what I think. It’s kind of funny, but honestly he made a pretty good pitch. It was a strike, not even like it was close or not close. It was a strike. When we see the iPad, when we see the game, it’s a strike. I don’t know why Angel didn’t call that pitch like that. I don’t know. You already know the history about Angel, so.”

After not allowing a run through the first five innings, Singer finished his outing having allowed three runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batter in 5 2/3 innings.

The Indians tied the score on Ramirez’s eighth-inning homer off Jakob Junis and scored the go-ahead run on Josh Naylor’s ninth-inning home run off of Wade Davis, who now has a 7.59 ERA this season.

Royals third baseman Hunter Dozier hit his fifth home run of the season, his third in four games. Andrew Benintendi and Ryan O’Hearn each went 2 for 4 in the loss.

The Royals built their 4-0 lead with four runs in the first five innings against last year’s AL Cy Young Award winner, Shane Bieber.

Bieber came into the day leading the majors with 68 strikeouts, ranked third in strikeouts per nine innings (14.46), fourth in whiff percentage (40.5 percent) and ninth in batting average against (.178). He hadn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his six starts this season.

“That one hurts more than maybe any other one this year,” Matheny said. “We say they all mean the same as far as the effort we give, but some losses seem to sting worse than others — all things considered.

“Brady did a good job. We get a good pitcher on the ropes and have a lead. We’ve been very accustomed to being able to put those away. We’ve served on that other side like what they did, keep coming back. Unfortunately, you realize what it feels like to eat one of those.”