Second Verse, Same As the First
It's hard to differentiate the first two games of a big series, and that's not good for the Royals.
Let’s start by looking at the positives here because how much fun is it to harp on the negative? The Royals have lost three in a row, which is the first time that’s happened all season and it’s early May. That’s pretty good. They’re still in first place, albeit now they’re tied with the White Sox. And the thing to keep in mind is that teams, no matter how good they are, will lose some games occasionally. Take a look at the Los Angeles Dodgers, who started the season 13-2 and there was talk of them winning more games than anyone else ever. They’ve gone 4-12 since then. So this was going to happen at some point for the Royals where they didn’t look good.
Oh, and Salvador Perez hit the hardest ball of his career on the longest home run of his career, so that’s a positive. In fact he had the three hardest hit balls of the night. Here’s that home run:
Anyway, enough with the sappy positives. Let’s get to the misery.
The team stinks right now, at this particular moment. It’s not the worst stink we’ve ever smelled in Kansas City. That’s absolutely for certain. It’s not even remotely close. This isn’t the 100-loss teams of 2018 and 2019. They’re in a rough patch right now and a lot of it has to do with some key injuries. Their bullpen, which seemed like a very deep strength just a few days ago has become quite top heavy. Some guys who profiled outstandingly as fifth and sixth relievers don’t profile quite as nicely as third and fourth options. They’re missing Adalberto Mondesi, both offensively and defensively.
And that’s where I really want to start because the reality is that the Royals hoped they could tread water without him. Whatever you think of Mondesi as a player, he does two things consistently well. He plays a very, very good shortstop and he wreaks havoc on the bases. The guy had a sub-.300 OBP last year and still stole 24 bases in 60 games.
And then when you add in the hot stretches where he adds a bat to that, he’s an absolute difference maker. His range allows Hunter Dozier’s less than adequate glove to play a little better at third (a little, I said, come on now). And him at short allows Nicky Lopez to play second, where he’s a fantastic defender. And Lopez is fine at short, but he’s not Mondesi.
That’s reared its head two nights in a row. On Monday, the double play that Merrifield didn’t turn probably would have been turned by Lopez. Last night, the error committed by Lopez probably doesn’t get committed by Mondesi. Does that change the game? I don’t know. The Indians still likely score two runs in that sixth inning, but maybe not three.
Maybe with a lead, everything is different rather than with a tie game. So that’s the first thing. They need Mondesi back. The news on him is…good…ish? They keep saying he might go on a rehab assignment next week, which probably gets him back about seven to 10 days later, but also they say he still feels discomfort swinging left-handed, so I don’t really know.
And they miss Kyle Zimmer desperately already. That spot where Josh Staumont entered last night was likely a spot the Royals would have gone to Zimmer. Now, Staumont ended the mini-threat in the seventh inning with a strikeout. It was a nasty curve. Here, I’ll even show you:
But then he had to come out for the eighth. I should have said something on Twitter to prove it, but I had a bad feeling. Staumont working on back-to-back days is something I’ve talked about quite a bit in this space and in other spaces and last night, he was working on back-to-back days after throwing 21 pitches on Monday. I didn’t love the idea of coming back out for the eighth after sitting in the dugout while the Royals batted.
I did say that I might have gone to Tyler Zuber in the seventh instead of Staumont and part of that was I had a feeling Matheny wanted Staumont for more than just Jordan Luplow to end the seventh. But here’s the thing - Luplow is fine. He’s not a world beater. Zuber, who has been much more aggressive in the strike zone and looked so much better than last year in spite of a couple recent games, would have been fine for him.
Now, I get it. If Zuber doesn’t get Luplow out then he’s forced to face Jose Ramirez and if he doesn’t get him out, he has to face Franmil Reyes. Sure, I totally understand that thought process, but I just hated the idea of Staumont up and down.
And then in the eighth, the game was undone with two very odd pitching sequences from him. He got Jose Ramirez to strike out on a very typical plate appearance, but when Reyes came to the plate, he apparently made a decision that he wasn’t going to throw a single fastball. Or maybe he didn’t come to that decision until he threw two beautiful curves down in the zone that made Reyes look silly.
So he threw a third curve out of the zone. I like that idea. The guy looked bad on the first two, maybe try to get him quickly. But then he threw a fourth curve and a fifth curve and a sixth curve. The problem is the last four were all out of the zone and Reyes didn’t offer at any of them. I can’t tell you what was going through his head, but I’m guessing he figured if he saw curve ball out of Staumont’s hand, he just wasn’t going to swing anymore.
I loved going to the well a third time and maybe even the fourth time, but the issue is that Reyes was now comfortable seeing that curve. Staumont on the 2-2 pitch at the latest had to come up with his fastball. I think had Reyes made contact with any of the curves and fouled them off that maybe they would have felt that they slowed his bat down enough to go fastball. Or maybe Staumont remembered the double he allowed last night. But I just think it was a mistake of a pitch sequence.
And then the next batter was Harold Ramirez, who should not be doing this much damage. The first mistake was bouncing the curve on the third pitch that allowed Reyes to get to second. I was at the game and wondered if that was another case of Salvador Perez not getting down quickly enough, but it was all on Staumont.
The second mistake came after putting a really good sinker in on Harold Ramirez’s hands that he fouled off. He went to the other side of the plate with a four-seam fastball that Perez wanted down and maybe a touch in. Staumont just missed his spot and he put it in just about the only spot that I think would have allowed a hit. The ball didn’t slice soon enough and stayed fair, so it was a double and the Indians had the lead.
You can see where Salvy set up and you can see where the pitch went and you can see that Ramirez had very little chance of doing anything on pretty much any other location because of how behind it he was. The next batter was Josh Naylor, who is becoming quite the thorn. This was a good pitch from Staumont that ended up scoring the next run, but Naylor seems to have a knack for some weird stuff and hit a 96.6 MPH fastball up and in through a vacated hole due to the shift. That part happens, but the Reyes and Ramirez plate appearances were a case of some bad pitching.
When Zuber came in, the damage was done, and then he made a mistake to Bauers that honestly has me wondering what kind of preparation is done in the pitching room before games. Bauers is now a career .200/.280/.311 hitter. That’s not good. And on a 2-2 pitch, Salvy set up for a fastball in the middle third of the plate and up. Bauers, in his career, has hit .303 with a .721 SLG on pitches up in the zone. On pitches in that spot in particular, he’s hit .431 with a 1.098 SLG.
So what exactly are they doing there? Why is Zuber throwing five consecutive fastballs, including the last one in basically the one area where a batter is successful? I don’t put that on Zuber. He hit his spot perfectly. The call was a terrible one and it’s another check in the box for lack of preparation from a pitching staff that doesn’t seem to have a great idea of how to attack hitters outside of the ones that are most dangerous.
Maybe Naylor has been a thorn in the side of the Royals because they’re not prepared to attack him as well as they are guys like Jose Ramirez and Reyes. I have never been much of a fan of Cal Eldred, as all of you know, and this doesn’t change that one bit. I am still flummoxed by that pitch and can’t imagine that anyone who had read the scouting report on Bauers would have ever called for that one. I’m not sure if that’s on Perez, Matheny or Eldred, but that was brutal execution.
And with the Indians bullpen and the fact that the wind was let out of the team’s sails, this one was over. It started with a reliever allowing inherited runners to score to tie it and ended with a blowup inning later to put the game away. Two games with almost identical paths. And now the Royals are up against last year’s Cy Young winner, Shane Bieber, so it doesn’t get easier, but their hold on the AL Central might be about to break.
Crown Jewels
Minor Was Good
I never even got to talk about the fact that Mike Minor took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and was generally solid again, even though the results won’t show it because of the sixth inning. I think he was getting a little tired in the sixth because that’s just the pitcher he probably is now. He has to work hard to get his out. He left a changeup up to Cesar Hernandez, and the biggest mistake Matheny made was that he didn’t have Greg Holland ready probably a batter sooner. Minor should know that you can’t nibble against Luplow because he is very patient, so if you’re just off the plate and not getting the call, you’ll walk him. And he did.
And then he actually made a heck of a pitch to Jose Ramirez, who just hit a little dribbler to third, but Ramirez hustled to beat the throw. It was a beautiful curve just below the zone and the result just didn’t work out, so it’s hard to get too upset about that in the long run. But again, they were prepared for his at bats last night. I’m still a little surprised that all three runs were earned for Minor, but he was probably the victim of the starters around him and the bullpen’s woes right now because if the bullpen wasn’t worn down and thinned out, I don’t know if he would have even faced Luplow, but Matheny tried to coax a couple extra outs from him.
The Defense Rests Too Much
This defense is not what I expected it to be to start the season. While most teams don’t have a great backup shortstop, I’ve been a little disappointed with Lopez, and this was before the error last night. He’s made a lot of nice plays, but he’s also been less sure handed than I expected him to be this season. Merrifield has obviously had his struggles at second and Hunter Dozier isn’t exactly good at third. I think Andrew Benintendi has had some throwing issues and it’s hard to really know what they’re doing in right field most nights.
The only plus defender on the field at most times is Michael A. Taylor in center. You all probably know I’m not enamored with Salvy defensively, so that’s about it. But I do think the team is potentially close to at least fielding an elite infield defense once Mondesi comes back and if Bobby Witt, Jr. proves himself ready to come to the big leagues. So that’s a start, but I do have some worries about the long-term outfield defense. I don’t think Taylor’s bat is enough to keep long-term, but I don’t really see much in the way of center field options. So this is something to watch moving forward. The Royals pride themselves on defense, so what’s happening on the field is likely eating away at the front office.
Oh Hey, Esky
As you probably heard, the Royals signed Alcides Escobar to a minor league deal yesterday. He’ll head to AAA Omaha, though I’m not sure how prepared he is for game action. He played in Japan last year and hit .273/.312/.329. To give you an idea of where that sits relative to some others over there, Nori Aoki at 38 hit .317/.424/.557, so, well, yeah. My opinion is this is a total depth move because the Royals have some injury issues in the middle infield at AAA and really want to see Witt in AA for at least a few weeks before pushing him higher, but there’s always that thought in the back of your mind that we’ll see him at shortstop in the big leagues. Who knows? Maybe he’d have made that play last night.