Royals’ Brad Keller serves up deciding run in 9th as Mariners snap KC’s 4-game streak

Kansas City Royals starter-turned-reliever Brad Keller experienced the elation of closing out his first major-league save Thursday, but he had to face the other side of being called upon in high-leverage situations on Saturday night.

Keller gave up the eventual winning run in the ninth inning of a 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners in front of an announced crowd of 25,237 in the second game of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Royals (62-90). They got the tying run on base in the ninth courtesy of Drew Waters’ third hit of the game, but they couldn’t drive him in to extend the game.

The Mariners (83-68) evened the series at a game apiece. The teams will play a rubber match on Sunday afternoon.

“Even in the bottom of the ninth, we were down one run but the stadium was still going nuts,” Waters said. “It’s kind of hard to sleep on this team, especially now that we’re starting to piece things together. I think all of us really expected us to be able to at least get one run across.”

Royals rookie first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino went 2 for 3 with a home run and two RBIs, while fellow rookie Waters went 3 for 4 with a triple, an RBI and a run scored.

Rookie shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored. Royals catcher Salvador Perez went 1 for 3 with a run scored, and he got hit by a pitch.

Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic allowed three runs on five hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings. He also struck out six, but he threw 103 pitches without completing the fifth inning. That pitch count was the third-highest of his major-league career.

“It was messy,” Bubic said of his outing. “There was a lot of traffic, but I was fortunate not to let the big inning kind of come into play there. Obviously, they left a lot of guys on base. We were able to pitch out of some jams that could’ve hurt us a lot more.”

Bubic, who did not factor in the decision, had at least one runner on base in every inning. The Mariners scored a lone run in the first, second and fourth innings.

Bubic battled inconsistency with all three of his pitches, but he drew the most frustration from the fickleness of his bread-and butter-pitch — the changeup.

“Mostly, I’d say on my changeup I’ve kinda been missing a little more than I’ve grown accustomed to over the years,” Bubic said. “It’s kind of eluded me at times. … That’s the one that’s probably stood out to me most the last couple weeks.”

Bubic has gone without a win in his past 11 starts, dating to July 24.

The Royals used six pitchers in relief of Bubic, including Anthony Misiewicz and Keller for 1 1/3 innings apiece.

The Royals scored in each of the first four innings, including a two-run first inning courtesy of Pasquantino’s two-out, two-run homer blasted 432 feet to right-center field. They scored one run each in the second, third and fourth innings.

The Mariners pulled within two, 5-3, going into the sixth inning.

Royals left-hander Amir Garrett recorded the final out of the fifth after Bubic’s departure, but right-hander Collin Snider took over and ran into immediate trouble in the sixth.

After a leadoff single by Jesse Winker, Snider gave up a two-run home run to Cal Raleigh — his second of the series — to tie the game. Then Snider gave up back-to-back walks to J.P Crawford and Ty France, which prompted Royals manager Mike Matheny to turn to right-hander Carlos Hernández out of the bullpen.

Hernández walked the first batter he faced, but then got induced back-to-back pop-ups and finished off the inning with a strikeout of Sam Haggerty to leave the bases loaded and the score tied.

Misiewicz pitched a scoreless seventh inning, and got the first out of the eighth. Then Keller came on with one out and pitched into and out of trouble. The first three batters reached on an infield single and back-to-back walks.

However, Keller got Adam Frazier to ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.

“Just overall, too many free bases,” Matheny said. “I think we had nine walks and a couple hit batsmen. It’s amazing our guys got us out of the trouble they got us out of because we had trouble all day long.”

The score remained tied until the Mariners got to Keller in the ninth with one out. Three consecutive hits, capped by a Raleigh RBI double off the left field wall, gave the Mariners a one-run edge.

“Not a lot of innings left and we had to have Brad pick up whatever he could,” Matheny said. “It took him a little while to find his fastball. He just wasn’t synced up at all. Then he started making some better pitches.”