Weird Game, Bad Game

The Royals and Rays took turns giving up runs, but the Royals did it better...which means they lost.

These games happen. The Royals don’t often give up 10 or more runs and they don’t often walk more than five batters. In fact, last night was just the fifth time they’d allowed double-digit runs, which is tied for 15th in the league. It was just the eighth time they’ve walked more than five, which is the sixth-fewest times in the league. So if the question here is whether or not this is a trend, I’d have to say no. But it doesn’t make it any less frustrating when it does, especially when the first two batters of the game walked, setting up a deficit before the Royals even got to bat. It was reminiscent of that rough stretch against the Mariners and Yankees.

Marsh just didn’t have it, which, again, happens. He threw 75 pitches over three innings and was able to get a swing and miss on just five of them. His command was clearly off from the start. I mentioned walking the first two batters. He’d only walked more than two in a game once this season prior to last night. He ended up walking just one more, but when you only face 17 batters over three innings, it would be somewhat difficult to walk too many, though I guess we saw Carlos Hernandez pitch in this one, so maybe I’m not giving Marsh enough credit.