Royals Split with a Thud

The Royals still haven't been no-hit since 2008, but this was a close call.

Maybe it was the pre-noon start (Kansas City time at least) or the fact that the starting pitcher for the Rays was out in the second (yes, I know, he was an opener), but nothing about yesterday’s game felt either normal or noteworthy. And yet, with one out in the top of the ninth, the only Royals hitter to reach base was Starling Marte, who walked twice. Good on Marte, I guess, but the Royals were a very impressive Carter Jensen home run away from being no-hit for the third time in franchise history. No team has been no-hit fewer times than the Royals, which is kind of wild, but also shows how little a no-hitter actually means in terms of any sort of analysis. And that analysis will have to wait another day.

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Let’s not pretend like it was a fun day for the offense, which only ended up with one hit. But if we revisit the idea of every team winning 54 and losing 54, with the middle 54 determining who is actually good. This one was one of the losing 54, no matter what the offense did. And that’s because Seth Lugo did NOT have it. I don’t say that to take blame away from an offense that was very close to literally doing nothing, but unless the bats were really humming in this one (and I suppose it’s fair to say they have been this month), this one wasn’t going to go their way. It was just a lot less fun to see the countdown to history on every MLB social post for a good hour or so.