The Boys Are Playing Some (Terrible) Ball
The worst stretch of the season has dipped the Royals below .500 for the first time in weeks.
There really isn’t much to say about the most recent loss to the Yankees other than the fact that it was the worst of the three. I think certain blowouts sting more, but a 10-2 game like what we saw on Tuesday isn’t one of them. It’s not so bad that you feel like your team just got absolutely demolished, but it’s bad enough that there was nothing they could do. Wednesday’s game at 6-3 was relatively close, but they never had a real chance because they scored in garbage time. But this one could have been a win. But it, of course, was not.
Make sure you check out the latest Kauffman Corner. Yesterday we talked about how the team can do without Cole Ragans, some starters they could go after if they want to make that move, if the Royals should be buyers or sellers and some manager talk.
As I said yesterday, the Yankees just aren’t a good matchup for the Royals, but this was one they could and should have won. Seth Lugo pitched well. Angel Zerpa continued to resurrect his reputation. Lucas Erceg made his return to the mound for the first time in almost three weeks. And they were facing the worst of the Yankees five starters. But it ended the same way every game has ended between these two teams for the last eight they’ve played - with the Yankees shaking hands.
On the bright side, one day after learning that the guy who finished fourth in last year’s Cy Young vote was going to be out “a while,” they got the best performance from the guy who finished second in last year’s Cy Young vote since the end of April. Lugo went 5.2 innings and gave up no runs on two hits. Granted, he did it against a lineup that was missing Aaron Judge for the first time, but it still had Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger in the 2-3-4 spots. No, none are Judge, but all are good. And even though Trent Grisham is off cycle right now or something, he’s had a good year and Anthony Volpe has had a decent year. And Jasson Dominguez has too. Their offense revolves around Judge, but he’s not their only offense is the point.
I don’t think Lugo is all the way back, but he got the job done. He did his typical thing where he throws a bunch of pitches, though only eight registered last night, which is odd for him. He didn’t throw his sweeper or splitter last night, which was interesting. But he got some chase (31 percent) and was in the zone a good amount. He didn’t allow any crazy contact and held them, on average, to relatively weak contact. I thought the decision to pull him when they did was interesting.