They’ve got to win a series eventually, right?
The Royals are on their way to a third straight rubber match to start the season. They were awful in this situations last year, but one of the reasons it didn’t tank them is because they won the first two games more than their fair share and because they almost never got swept. After today’s loss, they’re still looking for their first pair of wins in a row.
April is a very tough month for the Royals this year, with almost every series against a team with a winning record last season and most of them with postseason appearances. But you’d still like to see them win at least a handful of these series.
Winners
Bobby Witt Jr. hit his first home run of the season to drive in and score the Royals’ only run. He also had a fantastic defensive play, snaring a line drive that seemed destined to become an RBI hit and turning it into a double play, instead. Those two things were enough to make us all forget he failed to drive in runners at second and third when the team was only down by two. Do yourself a favor and watch these two highlights, then skip the rest of this and go enjoy your life.
Bobby blast.
Losers
Michael Wacha seemed like he was on his way to bouncing back with a decent start today. He gave up two runs in the second, but settled in until there was one out in the sixth. At that point, Cedric Mullins bunted himself on for a single, Ryan Mountcastle hit another single, and Wacha got Tyler O’Neill to fly out before Sam Long happened.
Sam Long has pitched in five games in this young season. He keeps getting called out of the bullpen to face lefties with runners on mid-late in games. He keeps giving up runs. Only once has he avoided giving up a run of his own, but even then, he allowed an inherited runner to score. Today he allowed two inherited runners to score and then additionally gave up two more runs of his own. That gives him a 12.46 ERA on the season, and he’s walked as many as he has struck out.
Chris Stratton was pitching in his third game today. He actually has one scoreless outing. But today he gave up a pair more to set himself up with a 7.71 ERA. He has walked more than he has struck out. The general rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t blame the pitching when the hitters only eke out a single run, but this is just getting ridiculous.
Kyle Isbel did manage a seeing-eye single through the infield in the third inning, but he also lost a flyball in the sun and another in the wind. By all accounts, the wind was insane today, but he’s the only outfielder who managed either of those feats, and he’s only an acceptable major league player for his elite defense. If he’s not playing elite defense, I’m not sure what value he can add.
Honorable Mentions
Mark Canha has started only one game in this short season, at first base, despite the Royals’ desperate need for offense from the corner outfielders. In his limited playing time he has a 231 wRC+ and 0.3 fWAR, but he can’t get on the field against MJ Melendez (22, -0.2) or Hunter Renfroe (25, -0.2). I don’t know why Q hates him – literally every other position player on the roster except Tolbert has more starts – but it’s becoming infuriating.
Daniel Lynch IV has a scoreless inning streak going back to last season that’s approaching franchise record levels, but he still couldn’t get into the game until after Long and Stratton had made completely sure the Royals wouldn’t be making a comeback attempt.
Matt Quatraro is starting to come under fire from fans for the inexplicable bullpen moves and starting lineups such as those involving the two players named directly above here. Not all of the Royals’ early season struggles can be attributed to him – he’s not responsible for the roster construction or player execution – but he doesn’t seem to be giving them as much help as he could, either. I’ve argued for two years he’s a good manager and I’m not ready to completely write him off, yet, but I’m asking a lot more questions than I’d like.
The Royals will try to win the series, which would mark their first series win of the season, tomorrow at 1:10 PM CDT. Kris Bubic, owner of the Royals’ best start so far this year, will face off against the Orioles’ Cade Povich. Don’t forget if you’re in the KC area that this will be the first of the simulcast games which will appear both on the FanDuel network as usual but also on local broadcast stations KCTV and KSMO. So even if you don’t have the right cable or streaming package, you can watch that game.