A First Inning Pep Talk and a Nine Inning Beatdown

The Royals will likely win again eventually, but no guarantees.

Jul 02, 2021

This one started ominously. Really, it started the way so many have started over the last month with the Royals not scoring in the first inning. But when Kris Bubic took the mound for his first start since June 13 and coming off the worst performance of his young career, it sure seemed like a test for the young lefty.

It started with a fastball on the lower edge of the zone. It was probably a strike, but was called a ball. Then he threw a changeup just off the outer edge that was probably a ball, but was called a strike. Then he came in with a fastball that was both off the plate and called as such. And on a 2-1 pitch, he left a changeup right down the middle again.

The changeup that doesn’t do anything but spin in the middle is going to get hit by big league hitters. We’ve seen so much of it from Bubic over the past month after he looked so good for awhile in May. And then he was all over the place. He hit Alex Verdugo with his third pitch to put him on first. Then he walked J.D. Martinez on five pitches and it should have been four, but the Red Sox star gave Bubic a break and fouled one off that he shouldn’t have even swung.

At that point, Ervin Santana stood up quickly in the Royals bullpen and began to get loose. He’s familiar with this role given the Royals issues with their rotation. As he was throwing, Bubic was about to hear from the bench, but it wasn’t Cal Eldred who emerged from the dugout. Nope, it was Mike Matheny. I’m sure he’s done it other times, but the only time I can think of was when he came out in the first in a similar situation with Jackson Kowar in Oakland. The meeting with Bubic wasn’t long, but the message was pretty obvious even without hearing it.

It was to get it together or get out of the game.

To Bubic’s credit, he got it together in the first. He used his curve to Xander Bogaerts as we saw him do in New York and got a ground ball to short that resulted in a forceout. Then he went right back to it against Rafael Devers after a first pitch fastball and Devers hit a sharp grounder right to Whit Merrifield that ended up as an inning-ending double play.

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Why did I spend so much time talking about a first inning? I liked what happened in that inning, that’s why. This is just me talking, but a visit from Matheny in the first inning isn’t about a mechanical adjustment. It’s not about strategy. It’s about talking to the pitcher and figuring out what is going on with him.

The Royals have talent on their pitching staff. It doesn’t mean they’re good, but it means they’re talented. Mike Minor got Cy Young votes in 2019. Danny Duffy has been a solid big league starter for a long time now. Brady Singer was a first round pick in 2018. So was Bubic. So was Kowar. So was Daniel Lynch. Brad Keller had three seasons to start his career that were better than any three seasons any Royals pitching prospect has had in I don’t know how long. We’re not talking about a staff led by Mark Redman or Scott Elarton here. They shouldn’t be this bad.

It was nice to see a visit to the mound from the manager that resulted in a change. At least for a bit. The fourth inning brought more trouble. He left another changeup middle-middle and J.D. Martinez hit it a long way. Then he walked another guy and gave up a hit with two outs and made a pitch to Danny Santana that really did look better live than it does when you watch it again and the ball just kept going. And going. And going.

And once again, the offense was basically silent. The team had scored double digits on the first day of the month in all three previous opportunities. They didn’t do that yesterday. They had a chance in the first when Merrifield and Carlos Santana singled to put two on with one out. And then they got a gift when a fly ball from Hunter Dozier landed between Martinez and Verdugo in left-center.

But Dozier gave it right back.

A Santana single in the third and a Nicky Lopez single in the fifth were the only trouble they gave Nathan Eovaldi through five. When a team is struggling to score, it always seems like they’re not playing with any kind of fire, but it’s fair to wonder the mindset of this team on the 10th game of a road trip careening toward 1-9 where they’ve gone from New York to Dallas to Boston.

When Ervin Santana came in for the bottom of the fifth and gave up four runs to give the Red Sox a 9-0 lead, the game was done. It probably was before, but it really was after that. Then it was really, really done when Devers hit a three-run homer to make it 12-0. Then it was unequivocally over when a sac fly made it 13-0. But if there was any doubt, when they scored two in the eighth, it was super duper over at 15-0. A run in the ninth only erased the shutout, but it didn’t erase the embarrassment.

With the loss, the Royals are currently in the midst of what is tied for their third-worst 25-game stretch in franchise history and second-worst inside a single season. In 2018, they went 3-22 from June 10 to July 9. They also went 3-22 when they lost the last three games of the 1991 season and then started 3-19 in 1992. And then there’s this stretch. It’s the fifth 4-21 stretch in team history (there are a bunch more on this search, but they encompass parts of the same 4-21 stretch).

It’s pretty unbelievable how bad this has gotten and how there appears to be no end in sight. I guess the age-old adage that if you can’t hit, pitch or field, you can’t win is pretty true. Who would have guessed it?