The Royals Offense Has Checked In
The bats led the way to get the team back above .500 for the first time in nearly a month.
It isn’t that long ago that we were talking about the potential of the Royals offense. In fact, you only have to go back a touch more than two months to spring training when the Royals were scoring runs with everyone and looking like they would be a force to be reckoned with. Along the way, they lost Adalberto Mondesi for the first 45 games and the duo of Jorge Soler and Hunter Dozier have been huge letdowns when they’ve been on the field.
After scoring 25 runs in the first two games of the season, the Royals scored five or more runs just twice in their next 13 games. During their 11-game losing streak, they scored just 33 runs, including three or fewer runs seven times. And even after breaking the losing streak, they’ve been inconsistent. And of course, at the start of their road trip that ended with a series win in Minnesota, they scored just five runs in three games in Tampa Bay.
But something clicked when they got to Minneapolis. They scored 19 runs in the three games, which was actually their second most of the season in any series (including four-gamers) behind just that opening weekend. And it absolutely has continued into this series sweep with the Pirates where they scored seven on Monday night and then ultimately 10. Those 17 runs are actually the third most they’ve scored in a single series, which is pretty crazy because it’s two games.
Last night was one of their best offensive games of the season. They hit three home runs and two triples. Those five extra base hits are the third most they’ve had in any game this season. The three home runs were tied for the second most they’ve had in a game and it was just the third time they’ve done that (they hit four against the Twins on May 1…actually what is it about the first of a month for this team?). The two triples were a season-high.
Look, I know the Pirates aren’t especially good, but they’ve put up double digit hits now in three straight games and in four of the last five. That’s four of the 16 double digit hit games they’ve had all season and they’ve all come in the last five games. Let’s talk about last night now because that’s what you’re all here to read, not to reminisce about some offense that has been on fire over the last few games.
The scoring started in the first with a single by Whit Merrifield (his third straight game with a hit in the first) and then a base hit by Andrew Benintendi, who was just getting started. That was pretty much all the offense could muster through one time through the order against Wil Crowe, who looked like he was hittable but was still getting the job done. When the lineup turned over in the bottom of the third, I had a slight hunch that they might get something done against him, but it was already 4-1 Pirates by the time Carlos Santana batted for the second time.
He started the fourth with a single that deflected off Wilmer Difo’s glove. A flyout by Benintendi on a ball he never should have swung at got the game to Salvador Perez who first took a slider in the dirt and then got one belt high that he could turn on. And boy did he.
That thing got out in a hurry, huh?
And that got things started for the Royals. Once they were within a run, you could see the offense kind of getting a little confidence built up. Even though they didn’t score another run that inning, they did get the lineup to the point that it was going to turn over once again in the fifth inning to get to a third time against Crowe.
Michael A. Taylor was set to lead off, and it’s gone kind of unnoticed, but since the losing streak ended, he’s been really good. Coming into last night, he’d hit .273/.319/.545 in 14 games with three doubles and three homers. He barreled a triple to center to start the proceedings and then Nicky Lopez walked for the first time of the game. A second hit by Merrifield drove in the tying run and Santana had his third shot at Crowe. He worked a four-pitch walk, which seems mundane, but it was an example of a player who simply will not expand his strike zone.
Those are an awful lot of close pitches. And the bases were loaded for Benintendi, who had really struggled at home to start his Royals career with just four extra base hits. And then he did this on the first pitch:
Now that, friends, is an ambush. One swing of the bat, four runs, and the game was as good as over.
The Royals offense had done it once again. Of course, they weren’t done either. Salvador Perez continued his redemption tour against lefties, hitting his second home run of the game off Chasen Shreve.
Since inexplicably starting the season 0 for 25 against lefties, Salvy is now 14 for his last 30 with four home runs against left-handed pitchers. That’s pretty good, I would say.
And then in the bottom of the eighth, with the Royals hoping like all hell to avoid Scott Barlow to give him an extra two days off after not pitching last night, they were able to tack on one more run with a triple off the bat of Kelvin Gutierrez. It was another hard hit ball off the bat of the young third baseman, and it showed the kind of damage he can do when he actually lifts the ball. A sacrifice fly from Taylor gave the Royals their daily out scoring a run and the 10-5 lead would hold up to give the Royals the sweep and get them over .500.
It’s always nice to get a win before a day off.
Crown Jewels
Singer’s Mentality
Maybe I’m late to the party here, but I started paying closer attention to Brady Singer and how he handled adversity during that start against the Indians when he, Cal Eldred and Mike Matheny were all ejected by Angel Hernandez. I’d seen some people talk about it, but I noticed some unraveling in that game and it made me wonder how many times I’d missed it in the past and how many times it would happen in the future.
You might see that pitch three was right in the zone, but it was called a ball. Two pitches later, Erik Gonzalez hit a ball that hit off the back of Singer’s leg. He spiked the throw to first and Gonzalez was on second base, just like that. I took notice. He threw six pitches to Adam Frazier next, but only one was in the zone. Then Ka’ai Tom was willing to give Singer an out with a sacrifice bunt, but he ended up hitting him. A single and two sacrifice flies later and Singer had allowed three runs in the inning, and you had a feeling that all could have been avoided.
Maybe I’m being unfair here, but I just feel like he needs to work to get his emotions in check on the mound. He’s been described as a bulldog, a warrior, a competitor and all that, but the fact is that those things only work if he can channel his fire into actually pitching well instead of falling apart. It’s something to watch for him because if he wants to reach his potential, he’ll have to figure out a way to do that.
To his credit, he gave up a hit to start the sixth inning and then got a double play ball back to him that he fired almost into center field. He could have folded again and given back the gains from the Benintendi grand slam, but he got two strikeouts and then got a weak popup that just found a hole to score a run before Kyle Zimmer cleaned up the mess on a bizarre play at the plate. So he did collect himself well.
Is Whit Back?
I don’t want to take credit for Merrifield’s return to the world of the productive, but since I wrote about his issues, he’s had three multi-hit games, which is one more than he had in all of May before the article. In those eight games, he’s hitting .303/.324/.419 with one walk and three strikeouts. Okay, so that’s leaving something to be desired still, but at least he’s getting some hits again. And he still leads the American League in stolen bases, so that’s a pretty good start.
I still think he could stand to actually make a bit less contact. In last night’s game, he swung at a 3-1 pitch that he should have just taken, but he would have been better off swinging through it because he hit a lazy fly ball to right on another one of those pitches just on the edge of the plate that he’s struggled with so much this season. There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled about the Dozier and Soler struggles, but the Royals offense can at least get by with them struggling if they can get the guy who has hit .297/.345/.452 over the last four seasons.
One player I think who has been overlooked is Gutierrez. He has quietly been above serviceable and has made some key plays.
You did mention him above and one thing I noticed was his in-game adjustment at the plate. Earlier in the game he swung at basically the same pitch but flied out to right b/c he was too far under it. When he nailed it he flattened that swing out and voila!
He's done a good job for us and that's kudos to him, but also the organization for finding and grooming him. I don't think he's an everyday big leaguer yet, but he has been thus far in my opinion.
You overlooked my favorite moment - Santana grinding out an hour-long at-bat in the 8th and making Denny impossibly cranky on the radio because of it.