K-Rod takes blame for not closing out KC

DETROIT — Francisco Rodriguez was still in full uniform as reporters waited to talk with him Saturday. He sat at his locker, trying to collect his thoughts, to process what had happened. 

He owns 430 career saves, more than anyone currently in a Major League uniform and fourth-most in MLB history. He has 71 blown saves along the way. Even after 15 seasons, the blown saves crush him. 

“Painful, digusting, shame, everything,” Rodriguez said when asked to summarize his feelings. 

He’s tougher on himself than anyone else. And Saturday’s 7-4 Tigers loss to the Royals, a game that was a 4-2 Detroit lead with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning, hit him hard. 

“It’s definitely a bad position to fail the way I failed today,” Rodriguez said. “Just unacceptable. One pitch away, one strike away, and I couldn’t make one pitch. The result of that is obviously five runs after two outs, and pretty much the game wrapped up. This one hurts, big time.” 

The one pitch was his 2-2 delivery to Paulo Orlando, but a multitude of situations brought him to that point. 

The last time the Royals saw Rodriguez, they nearly dealt him a similar fate, putting the tying run at third with one out before Alex Gordon and Orlando crushed ground balls that Ian Kinsler and Andrew Romine fielded — in Kinsler’s case, off his finger — for outs. They came …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com