Bloops, Rollers, Blasts and Quality Starts

The Royals handled the Twins to open the series with some, let's say, diverse quality of contact.

If you’ve ever seen a game between the Royals and Twins, the way last night unfolded was probably familiar. There is probably less truth in this statement than it feels like to Royals fans, but the way it unfolded feels like it’s been in reverse about 80 percent of the time. How often have we watched the Royals and Twins and felt like the luckiest hits in the world were scoring runs while the Royals were scorching the ball and getting absolutely nothing from it? Feelings aren’t reality, but it sure did feel like last night was revenge for like 25 years of the Twins blooping their way to wins over the Royals.

There was a sign that this one was going to be different all the way from the third pitch of the bottom of the first. Jonathan India smoked a ball to center field at 101 MPH off the bat. That’s certainly not a bloop. It traveled 403 feet. The catch probability on the ball was just 10 percent. But it was Byron Buxton, who is a truly excellent center fielder and it feels like if he gets anywhere near a ball, he’s going to catch it. He not only got near it, but he got his glove on it and just didn’t catch it. Sitting at home, warm and cozy, watching the game I thought, “oh that’s different.” And it absolutely was.

And then two batters later, Vinnie Pasquantino swung very hard and hit the ball very softly to left field.

The wind was pretty strong early in the game. I’m sure that didn’t help Harrison Bader. But the hard swing along with the pitching location probably made him pause at least a half second. And then he simply overran the ball, which allowed India to score the game’s first run.