The Royals Love LA

The Royals led. Then they didn't. Then they led. Then they didn't. Then they led. Then they won.

Anyone else absolutely worn out from that game last night? That was one of those games that you don’t win. You merely survive it. Or, you know, in the case of the Angels, you don’t. It looked early like the Royals were going to cruise to their second straight win over the Angels that would clinch another series win and their first winning road trip of the season. But after Jonathan Heasley cruised through five with just one mistake, things got ugly and they got ugly fast.

And that turned the game into one of the crazier ones the Royals have played this season. I mean just look at this win probability chart.

I’m going to get to some of the big decisions of the game that led us to watching a truly crazy Royals win, but first, let’s talk about the game itself.

Offensive Fireworks

The Royals scored 10+ runs for the second time this season and the first time at sea level. And they scored early and often. After two quick outs in the first, Bobby Witt Jr. had a phenomenal at bat. He was down 0-2 fast and then took three balls and fouled off four pitches to get to the 10th pitch that caught too much of the plate, sure, but I don’t think was horrible.

And he did that. Then in the second, a leadoff walk to Hunter Dozier led to a Carlos Santana double down the line to score him. And after both Michael A. Taylor and Emmanuel Rivera struck out with the man on third and less than two outs, Whit Merrifield came through with a double to make it 3-0 Royals.

In the fourth, Dozier singled to lead off the inning and Santana had his second chance to drive him in. And boy did he.

That’s when the Royals just started scoring in every inning. In the sixth, they got a run on a walk from MJ Melendez and then a fortunate balk call that moved him to second. Not only did it get him into scoring position, but it negated a strikeout from Santana. Armed with a second chance, Santana hit a single up the middle to score Melendez to give the Royals another five-run lead.

With the score now 6-5 after the crazy sixth inning, Witt ripped a double to right-center field to score Andrew Benintendi to get the lead back to two. Another ball hit to right-center!

And after the Angels tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, the Royals came back again with a double from Dozier and Santana drove him in again for his fifth RBI of the game.

And with insurance desperately needed, Witt came through again after a Benintendi walk.

That’s two pitches on the inner third that he definitely could have pulled his hands in and yanked, but instead he used his raw power to just drive them to the other field for homers. On the double, that pitch was begging to be turned on and driven foul, but he waited and just mashed it. That’s something very impressive.

The score was 10-7. What could go wrong?

Well we saw what could go wrong, but after the offense took a break in the 10th inning (and Dylan Coleman/Benintendi had a bit of a magic act to get out of the bottom half), they came back in the 11th to score two more runs on a Merrifield double and then a Kyle Isbel slow chopper. Somehow Daniel Mengden made it hold up getting through Taylor Ward, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani (and then Jared Walsh) and that was that.

If you’re looking for big positives, it’s with the bats for sure. Witt’s game felt like one of those superstar breakouts. To take the pitches he took the other way and to flash that power there was something very special. He isn’t a finished product by any stretch and is getting by a lot on talent alone, but as he starts to get a better idea of what the league is doing to him, he’s starting to look like the star we all thought he would be.

And Santana, in spite of his strikeout in the 10th is having a bonkers good June. He’s hitting .381/.509/.595 with three doubles, two home runs, eight RBI and 11 walks against just five strikeouts. It’s only 53 plate appearances, but it’s hard to ignore what he’s done while looking like he can actually do something for a contender. The Royals will still likely need to foot some of the bill unless he just stays so hot that he’s something slightly more than a lottery ticket, but the idea that he could be traded is actually becoming a little more likely than, say, three weeks ago. He’s hitting .264/.312/.500 since his rough first 10 games and .274/.321/.548 in his last 32 games since he was put in the number three spot.

And the biggest news of the night for the potentially longish term is Salvador Perez’s health. He left the game very early with a recurrence of that thumb injury. I still think the Royals needed to give him a little more time, but he’d also been hitting quite well, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about here. If he needs to go back on the IL, I think you can make a pretty good argument that it’s Vinnie Pasquantino's time with two catchers already on the roster.

Heasley’s Strong Start to His Start

For five innings, it sure looked like Heasley was going to continue to build on his success over his last few starts. He was throwing strikes, fooling hitters and just generally getting the job done. It’s hard to wax poetic about a guy who ended up giving up four runs in five innings and fell apart as quickly as he did, but there is certainly plenty to build on from the first five innings of this game.

For one, I thought his changeup was one of the best he’s had all season long. The Angels went 1 for 6 on it with four strikeouts. He had six whiffs on it on 16 swings and I just really liked his location for the most part.

As is the case with changeups, there will usually be a couple here and there that you wince at when you see where it was, but that’s a nice chart. He didn’t spend as much time up in the zone as you’d like to see with his fastball and that ended up hurting him in the sixth when he put one middle-middle to Shohei Ohtani, but there’s something there for him from the first five innings.

How did he tire so quickly? That’s something I don’t quite get. Maybe he was extra amped up and that used up energy. Maybe he was just trying too hard to be fine against the good part of the Angels lineup in that sixth inning and he wasn’t actually worn down. But there’s a building block at least, which is all that matters in a generally lost season.

Walks, Walks and More Walks

No team has a worse walk rate than the Royals this season. They’ve been a bit better on this road trip, but they walk more than 10 percent of the batters they face. So while the two massive three-run home runs from Ohtani might play in our heads for awhile, what set them up was an inability to throw strikes coming back to bite the Royals. You know that Heasley walked the first two batters in the sixth before the home run. And in the seventh, Josh Staumont walked the first two batters. Both scored. Then in the ninth, Scott Barlow walked Mike Trout. Then he scored.

Only 15 teams since 2000 (and not including 2020) have had a higher walk rate than the Royals do right now as a team. That’s just unacceptable. And while things have been better lately, five walks came around to score in a game that took until the 11th inning to reach a decision. Mike Matheny is upset about the 13-man pitching staffs (which, come on) being bad for pitcher health. That’s all the more reason why they need to get someone in place to lead the pitchers who can help to curb this epidemic.

Okay, now let’s talk about some of the middle inning decisions that I want to touch on.

The Decisions

Heasley in the Sixth

You know how well Heasley had pitched through the first five innings of this game. He came into the sixth inning with 71 pitches and 48 strikes thrown. He hadn’t walked a batter, hadn’t thrown more than 17 pitches in an inning and had dealt with a runner on just twice. He gave up two-out singles in the first and second. The third hit he allowed was a home run to Walsh. So he hadn’t gotten into any trouble and hadn’t pitched under basically any stress.

I saw some conversation that Matheny should have had someone up and ready when Heasley took the mound in the sixth inning. I think that’s incorrect personally. Even though he was getting to the third time through the order and facing the only real threats in their lineup, Heasley had a five-run lead. Now, if you want to argue that he should have had someone up and getting ready after the first walk, I’d probably get closer to agreeing with you, but I don’t think there was any huge issue with the way the inning was handled. Could someone like Gabe Speier have been ready for Ohtani where Heasley gave up the bomb? Maybe. But that’s an awfully short time to heat up.

My Verdict: Ultimately, Matheny got Heasley out after the rocket home run allowed to Ohtani and I think that was probably right. The only real way you’re getting a reliever in there to face him is if you have the guy warming up before the inning starts and I just don’t have an issue that they didn’t.

Brining the Infield In Up By Two

After Jose Cuas relieved Heasley, he immediately gave up a double to Walsh and then Walsh moved to third on a fly ball from Luis Rengifo. At that point, the score was 6-4 Royals with one out. The idea was that Cuas is a ground ball specialist and if they can get a ball right to an infielder, they can get Walsh at the plate or hold him at third since he’s not the fastest guy in the world. This is one of those situations where I at least understand the thought process. And Cuas did get the ground ball, but it got through the drawn in infield.

My Verdict: I HATED this move. Why bring the infield in there? It likely didn’t end up changing anything. Maybe Walsh still scores on the grounder with the infield back and the inning ended at 6-5 regardless, but that’s just asking for trouble and putting more runners on. In my opinion, once you get into the sixth, it’s about getting outs and maintaining the lead. The Royals tried to keep a two-run lead over a one-run lead and they ended up giving up the run without getting the out anyway.

Josh Staumont in the Seventh

With the score 7-5, the Angels were set to bat their number nine hitter followed by the only part of their lineup that can actually hit, as we’ve discussed. We know how things turned out, so there was another shot at this spot in the lineup, but at that moment, this was the game. The way that Matheny has used Scott Barlow this season would indicate that the seventh should have been his time to shine. Staumont is a solid reliever. He’s certainly not bad, but I just don’t think he’s terribly reliable because his control is just too iffy.

And he immediately walked the leadoff man to turn the lineup over to the top. Then he walked the next batter before getting Trout to fly to center that moved the runner to third. That was it for him. He faced three batters, struggled with control and then needed to be bailed out by Speier. And Speier couldn’t do it. He did get Ohtani to fly out, but the run came home. Then he gave up a triple to Walsh that got the tying run home. Speier got Rengifo to ground out and keep the game tied, but that’s a tough inning.

My Verdict: I kind of ride the fence with this one. I’d have probably gone with Barlow in this spot. The game was starting to slip away from the Royals after they had two different five-run leads and I think there’s something mental to locking them down in that spot. But also, Staumont is your second-best reliever. If you can’t count on him there, can you count on him in the ninth when you might need him then? So I go back and forth on this a bit. We interestingly got to sort of see how it would work out in the ninth inning. And it was just as bad, so who knows?

It all ended up working out with a win just before the clock struck 1 am in Kansas City, but boy oh boy was there a lot to get to from this one.