Never in Doubt...Other Than Basically the Whole Time
It sure felt the Royals were on the edge of getting the doors blown off them all night in a game they won 3-2.
The Royals are beginning to look like they might specialize in stressful games in 2021. That is, of course, if an offense that looked like it could help the team compete all year never figures things out. I’ll get to that eventually, but last night was no different and really felt like a classic 2014 Royals win. Here’s the win probability chart from throughout the game last night.
For a game that sort of felt like the Royals were on the verge of losing about 12 different times, they really weren’t terribly in doubt throughout the game. The Angels had runners everywhere throughout the entire game. They had two on in the first and left them there. It was the same story in the second. A 1-2-3 third was Danny Duffy’s best inning in an actually good start, but it was one of just two the whole game for the Angels.
It did feel like Duffy was in control throughout the game, which was a welcome sight after he pitched so well against Cleveland. I talked a lot about his velocity in his first start of the year, but last night was a different story entirely. He hit 97.3 MPH in the first and was able to get to 95.8 MPH in the sixth inning, reaching back for as much as he could when he needed it knowing that was likely his final frame.
When it was all said and done, he averaged 94.7 MPH on the fastball which was the hardest he’s thrown on average in a game since he averaged 95 MPH on September 13, 2016. I have my questions about whether or not he can maintain that deep into the season, but it’s nice to see him be able to find that extra gear. His spin rates were way up on all his pitches last night too, so he was getting some excellent movement.
I don’t know if he can maintain it, but the first two starts of the season for Duffy have me very excited for the third one, which is coming against a good lineup in the Blue Jays. Can he work out of trouble against them like he did against the Angels? I guess we’ll find that out on Sunday afternoon.
Even with the control, the Angels were still all over the field threatening to score. Shohei Ohtani, who is just absolutely ridiculous, hit a massive home run in the fifth inning that seemed like a lazy fly ball compared to his laser from Monday night. In the sixth, it looked like Duffy was cruising toward maybe even pitching into the seventh inning until Ryan Lefebvre guaranteed he was going to go six.
Once that hit, Duffy found more trouble. With one out and the bases loaded, Duffy did what he did all game and he found that extra gear and was able to get out of the inning. Granted he was facing Jon Jay, who hasn’t been good since like 2014 and Jack Mayfield, who sounds like a character in a James Patterson novel. But still, he got out of it with some masterful pitching.
Now let’s take a bit of a break in the action to talk about how fantastic Jake Brentz has been since he had some Opening Day/Major League debut jitters. In four outings since that first one, he’s gone 3.1 innings with three strikeouts and nary a base runner. In this game, he was tasked with facing David Fletcher, Ohtani and some guy named Mike Trout with a two-run lead. He threw 11 pitches, including his sixth pitch to Trout that resulted in Trout’s third strikeout of the game.
Things got hairy in the eighth though. Hunter Dozier (man alive is he struggling...some breakout start for him, what idiot would have predicted that?) booted a ground ball that was somehow not called an error and then Jose Iglesias singled to put runners on first and second. Wade Davis, who pretty much needs to be on point in order to succeed now was not and bounced a pitch that ended up flying into the dugout to move the runners to second and third before a sacrifice fly gave the Angels their second run and Greg Holland emerged from the bullpen.
As a side note, Davis coming in for the eighth and being relieved by Holland for the save may have also contributed to this feeling like a 2014 win. The last time Holland relieved Davis was a 2-0 win in Cleveland on September 15, 2015. It was a little cleaner than this one.
So anyway, Holland comes in to face former Royal but not former Supreme Court Justice Jon Jay. And it’s kind of an intense battle with the tying run on third and the Royals offense already packed away in their bunk beds for the night. He started the at bat with three balls in four pitches before getting a favorable call on a slider outside and then getting Jay to foul one off. And then on a zone that had been pretty good all night really, Holland put a 93.9 MPH fastball just below the zone and Alan Porter rang up Jay to end the inning.
To this point, the Angels had stranded 12 runners in a game they trailed 3-2. I’m no math major, but it seems like trouble. Heading into the ninth, Holland did not get to face mystery novel antagonist Mayfield to face before getting to the top of the order. Instead, Jose Rojas, 0-13 on the season coming into this pinch hit at bat would get up there. Ideally, he wouldn’t have to face Trout who doesn’t typically strike out as much as he has in this one. In fact, before last night, he’d only struck out four times in a game five times and hadn’t done that since 2017.
Holland got Rojas before giving up singles to Fletcher and Ohtani who made two outs in the game. One was a 107.9 MPH lineout that Whit Merrifield had to leave his feet to catch and the other was a routine fly ball. He’s amazing to watch, but it’s more fun when the Angels are playing someone else. Up steps Trout who takes a first pitch fastball for a strike. Then Holland challenged him. It was a meaty fastball, but Trout swung through it. Why did he swing through it? Holland threw it 95.4 MPH. The last time he threw a pitch that hard was July of 2018, so you can excuse Trout for not expecting that.
He missed badly with another fastball and then less badly with the next one, but you knew the slider was coming. And it was good. Really good. Trout put on his golden sombrero to head to the dugout, which sent Jared Walsh to the plate. I’m just going to show you what happened if you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it.
Ahh yes, the ol’ 2-OWWWWWWW-5 pickoff at third to end the game. Like I said, never in doubt. What a weird game. The Angels were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and left 14 on base. Is that Royals pitching? Angels poor hitting? A combination of both? I don’t know the exact answer, but I do know that if the Royals are in the business of winning games that way that we might be in store for a stressful but pretty fun year.
Other Notes:
Soler Looked Better
The box score shows an 0-2 game with a walk for Jorge Soler in this one, but I thought his swing looked more under control and like he just missed a couple. In the past, Soler has slumped and ultimately tends to come out of it blazing hot, and I think we might be close to seeing some of that after the swings he took last night. Maybe it’s just a blip, but I do think sometimes getting a bloop single can really reset a hitter’s mind and he did get one on Monday night in what was then a big situation. Yes, he struck out again later, but no strikeouts and the better swing have me hopeful.
If he can spend the next few days starting to rev up to lava hot, the Royals get to go to Detroit where he absolutely loves to hit. He’s hit .400/.443/.891 there the last two seasons with seven homers in 55 at bats. I’m not saying it’ll definitely happen, but just be prepared for Soler to absolutely go off.
Keller Intrigue
I still have my worries about Brad Keller given the way he’s pitched to start the season plus the whole slider usage thing that I’ve beaten badly into the ground since his first start. He’s pitched well against the Angels in his career in limited starts against them and while this team is better than the Angels teams of 2018 and 2019 when Keller saw them, they’re sort of walking wounded with Anthony Rendon on the IL and Justin Upton (whatever is left of him) scratched from the lineup last night. They’ve got weapons still for sure, but Keller is catching them at as good a time as any outside of having to face an angry Trout.
He looked a little better in his last couple innings against the White Sox, but the command was still all over the place. If he can put together a good start and look generally like himself, I’ll feel much better, but I’m on high alert for this one because if it’s not good, they’re going to have to do something to see how they can get him back on track.