Weekend in Review: Hitting Success/Pitching Failure, Bobby's Big Weekend and What's Next

The bats have come alive, but the pitching still leaves plenty to be desired.

Here we sit on Memorial Day, which is the generally agreed upon first checkpoint of the big league season. Anything that was prefaced with “it’s early but” is no longer prefaced with that. Because it’s not early. Teams are generally who they are at this point. I’d bet on one or two bad teams turning things around and being at least respectable and one or two good teams falling on hard times and looking pretty rough, but if you look at the standings now, the teams who are in it are likely the teams who we’ll be talking about in it at Labor Day. Unfortunately, we know where the Royals sit. After dropping two of three over the weekend (but splitting the series), they find themselves 12 games out of first and not even close to that third Wild Card spot.

So where do they go from here? No matter what the details of each answer are, everything has to be done with 2023, 2024 and 2025 in mind. I’m getting tired of talking about any year but the current one mattering but that’s the reality of the situation. Any player who isn’t part of a roster beyond next season needs to either be made available or extended. I would trade Andrew Benintendi and Brad Keller, but if you want to tell me they can get those two extended, I won’t argue too much. I would shop Michael A. Taylor and Zack Greinke (well…) and Hunter Dozier. I would just cut bait with Carlos Santana and Ryan O’Hearn. The service time date has long passed. Get the young guys up and let them play and take four months to decide who can be a part of the long-term solution and who can’t. There’ll be plenty you’re unsure of, but that’s the goal for 2022 now. And the best part is that it makes them more fun on top of everything!

Offensive Success Should Make Pitching Seem Even More Obvious

There are many things I don’t understand about the way the Royals operate, but I’m going to harp on something I’ve spent far too much time harping on. I don’t get what the plan is with the big league coaching staff as far as the pitching is concerned. I know that’s sort of an obvious statement, but when the Royals made a move two weeks ago now to change up the hitting instruction, they sent a message whether they wanted to or not that there would be consequences for poor play and poor results. Of course, Dayton Moore walked that back a few hours later with a little press gathering that I’m still annoyed about, but again, the message was sent whether it was their intention or not.

And since the move was made, the offense has been better. I’ve written a lot about it because I think it’s been noticeable. They’ve scored more runs (and still have room for improvement there), but they’ve just given better plate appearances and done more to drive the ball than they did before. Some of it was simply bound to happen because this offense wasn’t that bad before, but some of it is the coaching. Take a look at these numbers.

Terry Bradshaw

.225/.290/.336, 82 wRC+, 7.8% BB, 19.2% K, 37.1% Hard Hit, 6.5% Barrel, 88.8 MPH Exit Velocity

Alec Zumwalt/Mike Tosar

.265/.323/.422, 116 wRC+, 7.5% BB, 22.2% K, 44.7% Hard Hit, 8.8% Barrel, 90.6 MPH Exit Velocity

And while they could score more runs, they’re scoring at a much better pace now. So it’s fascinating to me that while we’ve seen a lot of pitching struggling at the big league level that the Royals can’t simply see the value in making a move. I don’t think replacing Cal Eldred is going to instantly turn them into a top-five pitching staff, though the offense by wRC+ at least is now a top-10 unit. Some of that is simply that there’s a lot of work to be done and it’ll take time. Some of it is that they’re lacking some talent, but also maybe they aren’t. Daniel Lynch and Brady Singer are pitching generally well. Keller had a tough start this weekend, but he’s a solid pitcher. Greinke is struggling, but if there was one pitcher I’d guess could figure it out, it’d be him. And the bullpen is one we were all excited about a month ago. So maybe there is a quick-ish turnaround.

But they continue to sit on their hands. The Royals scored five or more runs 10 times in their first 32 games before firing Bradshaw. They went 7-3 in those games. They’ve done it six times in 14 games since and are 2-4. The pitching is to blame there. The offense is figuring some things out and the pitching isn’t allowing it to hold up. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but I just cannot wrap my head around them having made one change and seen it work and now just stare at the rest of the team like someone just asked them to divide 547263 by 209.

The Games

Friday - Twins 10, Royals 7

Sometimes pitchers just don’t have it. And it really stinks when they don’t because you know it but the Royals bullpen has just had to give way too many innings for Mike Matheny to go to it when it was clear Keller just wasn’t going. to get the job done. I just think he was having a hard time with any sort of command on any of his pitchers and when that happens, he can usually go to the slider, but he just wasn’t feeling that one either. I’ll give him credit. He battled. He tried to get through five, but he could only make it through four.

Just to talk about that slider real quick. It’s pretty easy to see what happened. He didn’t have his normal spin on it and a lot of them found their way to the middle of the plate.

They actually didn’t do a ton of big damage on it with five singles, but he couldn’t use it to set up anything up in the zone, which is what he does when he’s right. He also couldn’t get the fastball up in the zone like he likes and it just was never for him. But the good news is the offense isn’t a pushover anymore, so a pitcher can give up a few runs and the game isn’t immediately over.

After Keller settled down a bit in the second, the offense made a charge in the third scoring three runs and then scoring another in the fourth. With two on and two out and the Royals threatening to leave their millionth runner of the year on base (please don’t fact check that), Bobby Witt Jr. did his magic.

It was really impressive how he just pulled his hands in to drive that ball off the wall in center. This is a strong dude. Then with the Royals down 6-4 in the seventh, it was Witt again.

I know that wasn’t exactly an elite fastball in terms of velocity, but again, to see the way he just pulls his hands in and turns on a ball is just super fun to watch. It was his third hit of the night, giving him his first career three-hit game. At that point, he was just a double away from the cycle, but he wouldn’t get it, sadly.

The bottom of the eighth is what made the game unreachable. Joel Payamps, who has been so good, just wasn’t. He tried to give up runs on Thursday and Scott Barlow wouldn’t let him, but on Friday, he made a 6-5 game a 10-5 game. And while I don’t believe that the sequence of events would have been the same, it still hurt because the Royals scored two in the top of the ninth, which was started off by an absolute bomb from MJ Melendez.

A walk and an Emmanuel Rivera double would score the seventh run, but Emilio Pagan needed just three pitches to strike out Nicky Lopez and secure a Twins win.

Saturday - Royals 7, Twins 3

When the Royals called up Brady Singer in 2020, I was super excited to see his starts. Last year, they were games I felt okay missing. But with what he did in his first two starts back from AAA, he’s back to a guy I want to watch and I have to say, he didn’t disappoint. He threw seven shutout innings against these same Twins last weekend in Kansas City, so this would be a pretty decent test for him. With his new changeup, teams are sort of seeing him for the first time. But the Twins have seen it.

And he pitched differently, but still good different. I don’t need to see him throw the changeup 15-20 times every game just because he has it. I need him to have the option. And he does, but he didn’t really need it in this game. He did struggle a bit with efficiency, throwing 90 pitches in 5.2 innings, but I generally think seeing a guy a second time in less than a week is beneficial to the offense, so for him to only allow the one run (and then two more when Speier couldn’t do the job) was perfectly acceptable from me.

On Saturday, the sinker was the star of the show for him. He gets so many called strikes because of the movement on it and this was no exception. He had 19 called strikes on the sinker out of 55 thrown. Add in four whiffs and a few foul balls and while they put nine of them in play, and some of them hit hard, it did the job for him. He did allow his first run as a starter on a sinker to Trevor Larnach, but just look at this nasty sinker to Byron Buxton that ended the fifth.

Or this one to Correa in the sixth.

I think he was probably a little fortunate that the Twins seemed to have their taking shoes on with some of the locations here on called strikes, but when a pitch moves like that, it can be tough.

He still threw eight changeups and I think they served their purpose for him. He missed high with a couple, but they were generally on the edges or below the zone and that’s all he needs. He ended with eight strikeouts and no walks and now this is his line since returning to the big leagues:

19.2 IP
14 H
3 R
3 ER
20 K (27.4%)
3 BB (4.1%)
1.37 ERA

As Alec Lewis would say, that’ll play.

And the offense played again. It started in the first when Benintendi doubled off the wall to bring up Witt. Remember that he needed a double for the cycle on Friday.

I’d like to personally petition the league to allow that to count on Friday’s game. That ball was hit so hard that it just sort of made everyone pause. Then in the third, Benintendi singled and Witt hit a ball even harder.

The Royals tacked on in the fourth in a big way. Rivera picked up another RBI with a big two-out hit. This was noteworthy to me because they capitalized on a mistake. Dozier had singled with one out, but was able to move up to second on a wild pitch, so even though there were two outs, a single could actually score him and Rivera came through. Then Lopez reached on a throwing error and Whit Merrifield made them pay again.

After the Twins scored two in the sixth, the Royals did something good teams do, so I was a little confused. They got them right back. Witt doubled again. I’m pretty sure he is kicking himself over the missed double and now will only hit doubles. But Salvador Perez, back from the IL, was hit by a pitch and after Melendez grounded out to move both runners, Dozier had a big two-out single to score two and give the Royals their four-run lead back.

I’d love to see it was easy, but it wasn’t. Josh Staumont was cruising through the first two batters in the ninth, but before it was all said and done, he had the bases loaded against Kyle Garlick. He tried to get him to whiff on a third straight curve, but it caught a little too much of the zone. Thankfully he didn’t get it all and the ball landed 379 feet from home plate in Merrifield’s glove for the final out.

Sunday - Twins 7, Royals 3

You know what really stinks? Watching a guy who may not have it anymore. I’ve had my concerns about Zack Greinke throughout the year. When you can’t get swings and misses, it’s just incredibly tough to succeed in the big leagues. The game is centered around getting whiffs and Greinke just hasn’t been able to do it this season. His season-high in whiffs is 11, which he’s done twice, but yesterday was his fifth outing with five or fewer whiffs in a game.

His four-seam fastball was hit hard coming into the game and that probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise with his velocity. The hardest pitch he’s thrown this year is 91.5 MPH. He came into the game with opponents hitting .353 with a .569 SLG and three home runs on his fastball and the Twins hit another home run against it in this one. In the end, he threw four innings, gave up five runs on six hits with three homers allowed.

Is he just toast? I don’t have an easy answer to that question. I’d like to say no definitively, but I can’t. He was pitching well when conditions were quite unfavorable for hitters, but since his start against the Rockies where he had a huge lead he couldn’t protect, he’s given up seven runs twice and five runs this last time. That’s 21 runs in 18 innings. In two of those starts, he was staked to a lead of at least four runs and couldn’t keep it. It’s a real bummer to watch some of this unfold, but I’m worried that’s exactly what’s happening.

And after the game, the news got potentially much worse.

Anne Rogers @anne__rogers

Zack Greinke was dealing with an injury to his right flexor/elbow area today, Mike Matheny said. More tests are being done now to determine level of concern. #Royals

I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but that area is never something you want anyone looking at.

And to make it seem even worse, Sonny Gray was absolutely dealing for the Twins. I said it the other night that when the offense is hitting generally better, you can accept a guy just pitching well. And the Royals offense is hitting better. Gray was just flat out dominant. His pitches had some crazy movement and he looked a lot like the guy who I wanted the Royals to go after multiple times over the last few seasons. The Royals caught a break that the Twins have to be very worried about when Gray had to leave with an injury in the seventh.

And they took advantage a bit, scoring two in the seventh inning and getting one more in the eighth, but ultimately they were just in too much of a hole and that was that. It’s really too bad because a win in this one felt weirdly big, or at least bigger than it should. A 16-30 record feels lot more than a game worse than 17-29 for some reason.

What’s Next

The long road trip continues for the Royals as they head to Cleveland for the first time this year (they actually only go twice since they have six games there to end the year). While it won’t be easy, they do appear to be missing both Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie, so that’s a plus. They do have to go up against Cal Quantrill who has been good this year, but at least it’s not the two best they have (this year anyway). We saw it up close to start the year, but the Guardians offense is super hot and cold. Some nights, it seems like they may never stop scoring and others it seems like they may never score again.

Then it’s an off day. I don’t usually highlight these in this spot, but if you’re looking for any sort of moves, either coaching or player-related, I would bet on it happening during the off day or maybe after they get home to play the Astros. The Royals will likely miss Justin Verlander in that series, but that’s one heck fo a team and if the Royals can’t figure out something with their pitching, things could get ugly as they have in the past when the Astros have come to town.