Walkoff Relief

The Royals finally got a GREAT start, but the bullpen and defense blew it before the offense saved the day.

Holy cow, what a wonderful, infuriating and wonderful again game! I have written the lede to today’s newsletter three separate times. This is the fourth and the final. Thankfully the story from the game can’t change again now that it’s over. Early (and getting late), it was all about Alec Marsh and his incredible start. I’ll be getting to him. Then it was about the bullpen (and the defense) imploding for what feels like the millionth time in a row (it’s not really). Finally, the story was the Royals offense, once again, coming through in the late innings and making life miserable for opposing bullpens.

The Sound of Music doesn’t recommend this, but let’s start toward the end. After a wonderful seven innings from Marsh (I swear, I’m going to get to him!), John Schreiber came in to relieve him with the score 2-0. On his second pitch, Anthony Rizzo, or whatever is left of him, hit a towering fly ball to right field that just kept going. I mentioned this on the remains of Twitter, but on a different day or at a different time, that might have been a long flyout for the first out. The game, however was played yesterday at that time, and it was a home run.