Papelbon's struggles persist as Royals walk-off Nationals

Jonathan Papelbon, the decorated closer presently employed by the team with the third-best record in baseball, was summoned Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium to nail down the Washington Nationals' fifth straight victory. Bequeathed a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, all he had to do was record three outs before the Kansas City Royals scored two runs.

He choked.

Despite coming within one strike of sending the game to extra innings, having allowed the Royals to tie the game 6-6 on a one-out, pinch-hit single from Mike Moustakas, Papelbon - the six-time All-Star with more career saves than all but nine relievers - capped a spectacular implosion by surrendering a game-ending single to Lorenzo Cain on an 0-2 fastball with runners at the corners.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

"I blew the game," Papelbon told reporters after his team's 7-6 loss. "They are all big league hitters. You have to get them out. Execution. I didn't execute some pitches. That's what it boils down to."

Though Papelbon took the mound Tuesday with a 2.38 ERA and just one blown save in 10 chances this year, the 35-year-old has mostly struggled since arriving in D.C. last year to miss bats like he did earlier in his career.

Not only has Papelbon's swinging-strike rate cratered dramatically this year, but he isn't getting opponents to chase outside the strike zone nearly as much, either, and his ground-ball rate is the lowest it's been since 2009.

Through his first 35 appearances with the Nationals, Papelbon has already blown four saves, and his 80 percent conversion rate since coming over from the Philadelphia Phillies represents an eight percent drop-off from his career mark.

He still has the confidence of manager Dusty Baker, however.

"He's our closer," Baker told MASN's Mark Zuckerman. "There’s a lot of closers that don't miss bats. It’s a matter of location, more than anything."