Strikeouts, Silent Bats, Balks and a Gut Punch
The Royals couldn't get much of anything going offensively and it cost them again as they continue to struggle to start the season.
A battle of Opening Day starters will probably look like this one did early more often than not. Of course there are those games that end up surprising you where you think it’ll be a pitcher’s duel and it’s 12-8 or you think it’ll be a slugfest and it’s 2-1, but when you put the Brewers ace against the Royals ace, I think you expect it to be low-scoring. Neither starter disappointed, at least not in terms of the results. Cole Ragans, of course, made a mistake almost immediately leaving a changeup in the middle of the plate that got crushed, but he was overall excellent. And Freddy Peralta was too.
The issue was that the Brewers were able to drive up the pitch count on Ragans in the fourth and the fifth innings and get into the part of the Royals bullpen that has me a bit concerned. If the Royals can get to the seventh or eighth, I feel great about their options. But those middle innings are just not quite settled yet. As it turns out, though, the middle innings proved to be no issue for the Royals. Hunter Harvey had another perfect outing. While Angel Zerpa struggled yet again, Lucas Erceg bailed him out and John Schreiber and Daniel Lynch IV were able to get the Royals through the ninth inning with relative ease.
The bullpen combined to go 4 innings with just one hit allowed to go along with six strikeouts and two walks during the regulation portion of the game. Things got a little hairy in the 10th, and they ultimately lost in the 11th, but the bullpen and the pitching in general were not the reason the Royals lost this game. In fact, there are some things to improve on, but the bullpen has settled in a bit, especially with the most essential pitchers, and I’m not terribly worried in the long-term about how they’ll fare. I wish they weren’t being forced to throw so many innings, and that’s on Ragans, at least a little bit.