Escape Acts and Insurance

Zack Greinke and friends got out of jams while the Royals capitalized when they had the chance.

The Royals won their second consecutive four-game series yesterday with a 5-3 win over the White Sox. It’s the first time they’ve won two straight four-game sets since 2014, which is a long time, but also they just don't play back-to-back four-game series all that often. This past eight-game stretch was just the second time they’d played consecutive four-game series this season and it wouldn’t have even happened if not for the lockout making the first day a doubleheader. So while it’s an interesting factoid, it may not be quite as big of a deal as it seems. But how they got their win to get those back-to-back series wins was fun in a different way.

And really, it was a lot of shadenfreude. Don’t get me wrong, watching the Royals win is more fun than watching them lose, but watching them beat teams who are doing things the Royals have done so often may be especially sweet. Yesterday, the White Sox had 15 baserunners. There have been 802 games this year where a team has reached base 15 or more times and in only 38 of them, the team has scored three or fewer runs. The surprising thing is that the Royals aren’t one of the 38. With all their RISP issues, you’d think they were, but you’d be mistaken. I was mistaken to assume that.

Second Inning

Yasmani Grandal started the inning with a single on an actually nice piece of hitting that was surprising to me. Then Yoan Moncada singled to put two on and nobody out. Sometimes when you watch Greinke, you feel like he’s totally in control and other times, you wonder if disaster is about to strike. But in this case, he went to work. First, he threw three straight fastballs to Josh Harrison, which each one a little higher in the zone and on the third one, he got Harrison to hit a lazy fly ball to center. I don’t know if this was the plan, but look at this pitch progression:

He kept it on the same side of the plate, but just kept moving Harrison’s eyes. It’s almost like he wanted him to find that third pitch attractive enough to swing at because nothing could be done with it. Am I giving Greinke too much credit? Maybe, but he’s earned it. And then he got a double play from Lenyn Sosa. Crisis averted.

Third Inning

Here we go again. Seby Zavala started it this time with a single to left. Then Luis Robert went up the middle for a single and Andrew Vaughn singled to right. The bases were loaded with nobody out. Greinke again went to work. He wasn’t going to give Eloy Jimenez a fastball. He started the plate appearance with a curve off the plate. Then he got Jimenez’s bat going with a cutter he swung and missed at and then on a 1-2 pitch moved his third curve just a bit farther outside than his second.

Then he did it to Jose Abreu. It was basically the same pattern. He started him off with a curve out of the zone that Abreu didn’t bite on, so Greinke got his bat swinging with a fastball in the zone, but then got him to take a curve and then look silly on a changeup.

After trying to get Grandal out up in the zone in the second and failing, Greinke totally changed his plan and went down down down.

And he got the groundout to escape. That’s five runners stranded in two innings.

Greinke threw 43 pitches in those two innings, so to get through the fourth with nine pitches and the fifth with six was absolutely huge, but the White Sox weren’t done.

Sixth Inning

This one started with, you guessed it, a single. Jimenez reached with a single before Abreu hit it but flew out to center. Then it was another single from Grandal to put two on and one out and Greinke went to work. He tried to stay away from Moncada, but Moncada didn’t bite, so it was 2-0 when he went with the cutter and his fastball to get Moncada’s bat moving (there’s a pattern here). Once he got some foul balls, Greinke dropped a curve for his first swing and miss since the third inning. It was big.

With two outs, it felt like he was just playing with Harrison again and ended up putting a fastball above the zone and Harrison flew out on that once again.

The White Sox had at least two on with no more than one out against Greinke three times in those first six innings and Greinke stranded every single one of them. He came out for the seventh, got his first out of the year beyond the sixth and gave up an infield single where the runner advanced to second on a throwing error and that was it for him (Jose Cuas cleaned up this slight mess for him), but his final line was outstanding. All the hits allowed dropped his game score, but it was the third time this year he didn’t allow a run, the sixth time he didn’t walk a batter and the fourth time he struck out five, which is a season-high.

And he had to be that good because the White Sox were countering with Dylan Cease, who came into the day with 13 consecutive starts allowing one earned run or fewer, which is crazy. Within the stretch, he actually allowed two runs in one start and six in another, but none of those eight were earned. He actually had thrown 10 straight games with one run or fewer allowed, earned or not. He’s legitimately having a great season for the White Sox. But he made one mistake that honestly wasn’t even a mistake. And Vinnie Pasquantino made him pay in the second.

That is such an easy swing and it was Pasquantino’s third homer of the series. How unlikely was that home run? It was a slider thrown by Cease with two strikes. He’s thrown 336 of them now this year after yesterday. Of those, 103 ended in strikeouts, eight ended in a walk, 165 ended the at bat in some way with hitters going 13 for 156 with 12 singles and, yes, Pasquantino’s home run. Of all the two-strike sliders thrown by Cease this year, only one has been hit for extra bases and it was this one.

And that was all they could get against him. But one thing to note that our friends over at Royals Farm Report noted on Twitter. There was a situation in the sixth when Pasquantino struck out that might have won the game for the Royals. Michael Massey led off the inning with a single on the second pitch. And then Salvador Perez hit a first pitch grounder up the middle for a double play. At this point, Cease was at 88 pitches. If Pasquantino grounds out on the second pitch, I bet we see Cease in the seventh, but just working that at bat to six pitches may have ended his day.

And that’s what the Royals needed. Joe Kelly came into the game and they got a leadoff walk and a single and then a big hit from Nicky Lopez with one out and two men in scoring position to make it 3-0. Lopez eventually stole second and who else but MJ Melendez lined a single to right to score him. Now, that single was probably a gift from the White Sox playing Andrew Vaughn in right field because it sure looked like he could have caught it if he was more aggressive, but he stayed back and the run scored and that was ultimately all they’d need.

But for good measure in the eighth, they grabbed one more on a Bobby Witt Jr. (he had pinch run in the seventh) two-out single. He then stole second, Nick Pratto walked behind him and Michael A. Taylor dropped a big hit into right to score the Royals fifth run.

Ultimately, this game was about the Royals capitalizing on chances and the White Sox completely flushing them down the toilet. And now the Royals are 30-29 in their last 59 games. They’re 11-10 since the break. They’re 6-4 since the deadline. This looks and feels like a different team. Of course their next opponent might be a little more difficult. The Los Angeles Dodgers roll into town tonight through Sunday and they’re on a 10-game winning streak and sit at 77-33. But the Royals are kind of playing with house money. If they lose the series or even get swept, it’s what’s expected. But if they somehow win the series? Woo boy, people are going to get excited.