Big Win To Start the Road Trip
The Royals had struggled on the road this year, but started this trip with a big win over a hot team.
Are the Royals…dragon slayers? I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I don’t think we can discount what they did against the Astros over the weekend and at least how they started the series against the Rays. Coming into the weekend, the Astros were getting on track, having won five of six. The Royals took two of three from them and have now taken the first two against a previously hot Tigers team. And last night, the Royals came into Tampa against a team riding a five-game winning streak and took the first game of that series with relative ease. At least as much ease as possible when the offense continues to struggle.
I’m not entirely sure that any team in the American League is actually good, but I am sure that any team other than the White Sox is capable of winning 10 of 12 or losing 10 of 12, so it kind of comes down to when you’re playing them. Or maybe it doesn’t for the Royals, given how they’ve taken care of business in recent games. There’s still work to do with two left against the Rays, but to take game one is such a great feeling and to do it with excellent pitching, some nice defense and a couple of timely hits is a good formula for this team, especially right now.
It all started with the starter (imagine that), Michael Lorenzen. The line was clean.
6 IP
4 H
1 R
4 K
2 BB
88 pitches
He only got six whiffs, but he did get 15 called strikes to get to a reasonable enough CSW% on the day. He had the Rays chasing with a 32 percent chase rate and really kept them guessing throughout the night. Lorenzen is starting to take classes at Seth Lugo’s school of pitching and threw seven different pitches last night. What’s so impressive about the Royals pitching staff is that they have all these pitches and they always seem to hone in on exactly which ones to feature. Maybe it’s game plan against a certain team, but Lorenzen last night was a great example.