The Rookie and the Stars
When the stars hit for the Royals, it all comes together. When they get starting pitching like they did, it’s a rare easy win.
The Royals and Pirates came into the game last night as the two lowest scoring teams in the big leagues. The Pirates held up their end of the bargain. The Royals did not. And this all happened at home, which was a house of horrors for the Royals throughout the entire month of June. And how did they do it? They got a great starting pitching effort from the rookie, Noah Cameron. And the three bats they counted on so much last year came through, multiple times in the cases of Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez. It’s happened so infrequently that it’s hard to remember, but this is the formula the Royals hoped to follow to improve on 2024. Maybe they weren’t planning on nine runs and four home runs every night, but the stars starring and the pitchers doing their thing was and is the most likely way to get wins for this club.
Their nine runs were tied for the second-most they scored in a game at Kauffman Stadium this year, trailing only the 10 they put up against the White Sox in the finale of their four-game series back in May. That was during the 16-2 stretch. The other time they scored nine was the second game of the Dodgers series, which means they’ve scored nine runs in two of the last three home games (and also two of the last four games overall, with nine on Friday in Arizona).
Has the offense corrected itself? I think that’s hard to say still. They’ve scored four or more runs four times in seven games so far in July. That means they’ve scored fewer than that three times. But that’s also a much better percentage than before the start of July when they’d scored four or more runs 32 times out of 85 games. What I do think they’re doing is making better decisions at the plate. It’s only seven games and, again, three of them were decidedly not great offensive outings, but their chase rate in July is middle of the pack instead of bottom of the pack. Maybe more importantly, they’re actually doing damage on the pitches they should do damage on.
They have a .637 SLG on pitches in the heart of the plate this month. That’s ninth in baseball. Their xSLG of .770 is actually best in baseball by about 50 points, so they’ve done well and are actually a good bit below where they “should” be. Their .327 average on pitches in the heart of the plate is ninth-best in baseball, but their .375 xBA is second-best. Their 95.7 MPH average exit velocity is second best as well. If you expand the numbers to include the whole zone, they’re 14th in batting average (7th in xBA), 11th in SLG (6th in xSLG) and second in average exit velocity. It’s just seven games and other than it being where the calendar cuts off, it’s a random date, but it’s still encouraging.
And last night was more of the same.