Wild Win on a Wild Night

The Royals were just part of baseball's trend on a night with plenty of absolutely bonkers games.

I don’t even know where to start to talk about last night’s game. The Royals won, which was cause for more relief than celebration with the way things ended. But it was just a crazy night around the entire game. Doesn’t it always seem that way, though? It just feels like sometimes there are those days where things are just a little nuts around the game. Every team was in action and 12 teams scored in double digits. Four games featured both teams in double digits, including the Royals. Three games finished at exactly 11-10! Coming into the night, there were just 12 games all year where both teams scored in double digits. That number increased by 33 percent.

So when the game was 11-6 in the top of the ninth and trusty Scott Barlow came on to pitch, I had an uneasy feeling. Why? Barlow had actually been excellent since his rough start to the season. From April 22 through the bottom of the eighth inning last night, Barlow had a 2.63 ERA with a 32.1 percent strikeout rate and 8.9 percent rate in 27.1 innings. If you believe in FIP, he was unlucky if anything. His WHIP in that time was 1.10. In those 26 games, he allowed a run in just five of them. He was perfect in 10 of them.

And yet, there I was at the stadium looking to see how many times in his career Barlow had allowed five or more runs in a game. The answer was just once, last year in that weird game in Yankee Stadium where the Royals took a lead when they broke like a million inning scoreless drought and he gave up six runs but only two earned. So I felt a little better. But then he gave up a single and walked a batter and then walked another batter with one out and then gave up a single and another single and another walk and then an RBI groundout and I started to wonder if there would be a second game added to that ledger.

As you probably know by now, Riley Greene hit a weak liner to center that Drew Waters caught and the Royals held on to win the game 11-10. A sigh of relief was breathed throughout the city. Many people fired off their hot takes about Barlow’s trade value being destroyed (it wasn’t and isn’t, please pay no attention to those folks) and the Royals found their way to their pathetic 28th win of the season. The ninth inning (and quite possibly the most obnoxious people I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting in front of) kind of took away from what was a fun game with some really interesting stories, so let’s get to those.

Dairon Blanco Was *This* Close to a Cycle

We hear a lot that the last Royals cycle was nearly 33 years ago. In fact, the anniversary is six days from now, so soon we’ll hear that it was more than 33 years ago. But I think when we envision the next player to hit for the cycle for the Royals, we think of someone like Bobby Witt Jr. or even Waters.

Enter Dairon Blanco.

He got a shot at the big leagues last year in a very limited showing and had seven plate appearances in five games. This year, he’s gotten a little more run. Last night was his 22nd game and he entered it with 52 plate appearances, hitting .188/.250/.333. I’ve been somewhat intrigued by a strange line of a guy like him having more extra base hits than singles, but he isn’t without power. He’s not a little guy by any stretch and he did pick up 20 doubles, three triples and 14 home runs last year in AAA.

With one out and a runner on second, he smoked a ball to the left-center field gap at 108.5 MPH.

It was somewhat comforting to see a catcher playing left field in Kauffman Stadium misplay a ball and realize it was the road team. That triple scored Edward Olivares, who had just returned from the IL, to get the Royals on the board. Blanco then scored on a Maikel Garcia sacrifice fly that wasn’t especially deep to tie the game.

In the fourth, the Royals bats really got going. A Freddy Fermin double scored a run and then Olivares drove in two with a single with the infield drawn in. Then Waters tripled into the left field corner to score Olivares, which brought Blanco to the plate again.

I have to admit that even though he had a single and a triple through four innings, it didn’t really even cross my mind that he had a shot at the cycle. Some of it was the fact that he’d never hit a big league home run and wasn’t hitting for a ton of power at Omaha this year either, but some of it was just that it was a weird game and to start with the triple and then follow with a bunt single is a little odd.

But fast forward to the sixth inning and Blanco was at it again. He didn’t hit it hard by any stretch, but he got himself the double he needed to set himself up for a chance. And he scored behind Olivares on a double by Garcia to give the Royals a 9-6 lead.

Up stepped Blanco in the bottom of the eighth inning and there was some chatter around me about him going for the cycle. At this point, I obviously knew it was possible but still didn’t really think there was much of a shot. But Brendan White left a sweeper in a good spot to hit.

Man! He was that close! According to Baseball Savant, that’s actually a home run in 19 different parks around the league. So you can’t fully blame the stadium for the lack of a cycle, but there’s at least a little resentment toward it that I’d say you’re allowed.

Blanco is just so interesting to me. He’s 30, so he’s not really a prospect in any way, shape or form. But he’s also only in his fifth professional season with a big league organization. The fact that nobody played in 2020 hurt him and the fact that he got a late start after playing in Cuba hurt him too. So no, he’s not likely to be a long-term option in the outfield to start, but he just plays with so much energy that you feel like there has to be a place for him.

He can really go get it in the outfield. He can steal a base (he needs to work on not sliding past the bag) and, again, he’s got that something that good teams have somewhere in the dugout. The Royals certainly aren’t a good team, but they could use that.

Speaking of Energy…Freddy Fermin

I don’t think I’ve written enough about what Fermin has done for this team since he’s been back in the big league this year. After a 2 for 3 night at the plate with a double, two runs scored and another RBI, Fermin is now hitting .286/.333/.455 on the season in 121 plate appearances. That’s good for a 115 wRC+. He rates exceptionally well defensively with five DRS coming into last night and is an above-average pitch framer as well.

I don’t think it’s especially close when I say that he is the best backup catcher the Royals have had in Salvador Perez’s career. And I think there’s a legitimate question to be asked about if he should be spending more time behind the plate with Perez transitioning to the DH spot far more often. Let’s be honest here. Salvy gets banged up quite a bit. It looks like he might get back into the lineup today, but he takes a real beating behind the plate and we saw in 2021 what he can do with some regular rest.

I don’t know that Fermin is a 115 wRC+ guy moving forward, but I also don’t think what he’s doing is enough of a fluke to think he wouldn’t be at least average with the bat. Minor league stats are what they are, but he did hit .304/.448/.674 in Omaha this year. He did hit .404/.482/.566 in winter ball. And he did hit .270/.365/.480 in Omaha last season.

Plus, he brings the energy in a similar way to Blanco. I think a lot of people look at some of the young Royals and get some unfounded idea that they don’t care. Witt is very cool on the field. MJ Melendez is someone people tweet to me almost every day about saying that he seems disinterested. Nick Pratto is not the most aggressive guy. Michael Massey isn’t either. I think the idea that they don’t care is ridiculous, but every team needs the guys with some fire and energy and I think Fermin is one of those guys.

I’d love to see him catching at least half the time even with a healthy Salvy and maybe even a little bit more. Does it make some of their decisions tougher by giving Fermin an expanded role? Sure it does. It makes it more difficult to have both Pratto and Vinnie Pasquantino on the field. It means that there’s a little bit less rotating at the DH spot. But, at this point, I’m kind of ready to say that it’s for the best of the team.

Daniel Lynch IV Certainly Was One of the Pitchers in This Game

You may have noticed something a little different when the starting pitcher took the hill for the Royals. Instead of the back of his jersey simply saying “Lynch” it said “Lynch IV" which is pretty cool. I may have missed this, but I don’t know why he decided to make that change now. Whatever the reason, good for him to honor his family and his ancestry like that. And it’s cool that he’s the first player to be known as a fourth in baseball history.

Last name aside, I’m concerned about him. I wrote about it in his last start before the break, but his velocity dropped in the sixth inning of that start. He got a visit from the trainer and he threw 93+ on each of his next two pitches, but I wasn’t sold. There was a reasonable argument as to why he was held back after the break as long as he was (though he would have pitched Monday without the doubleheader, I think), but I wondered a bit about that too.

His first three pitches were fastballs.

90.7 MPH
91.1 MPH
91.2 MPH

Well that’s not great.

His next fastball was a base hit, but it was at 92.4 MPH, which is right around his season average of 92.7 MPH, so I was assuaged a bit, but then he got absolutely smoked by a Spencer Torkelson home run on a 92.2 MPH sinker. He opened the second with one at 89.5 and ended up throwing four sinkers/four-seam fastballs slower than 90. He’d thrown 10 fastballs all year less than 90 and five of them came in his last start against Cleveland.

Again, not great.

At the end of the day, he averaged just 91.5 and topped out at 93.6. Now, his vertical break on the pitch was up, so maybe he’s been tinkering as he is wont to do and he’s still trying to figure out how to get that movement with his old velocity, but we’ve talked about this so many times. Velocity gives you a margin for error. And it’s not just on the fastball. Lynch absolutely hung a curve to Torkelson in the fifth that was hit out for his second homer of the game.

And maybe I’m not being fair because he threw one 93.4 MPH right before that curve, but I would argue that Torkelson not needing to respect any kind of velocity made it that much easier for him to gear up on that curve. It was a hanger, so maybe not, but the next time, maybe the curve won’t be quite so meaty but without needing to respect the fastball, it can get crushed too.

His changeup also suffered from the lack of any sort of fastball. That pitch had been so good for him, but he didn’t get a single swing and miss on seven swings and the Tigers only chased one of the 11 he threw out of the zone. That was where he was getting the job done previously. Without the fastball, the changeup becomes an afterthought. It was nice to see his slider looking like it has in the past when it’s been good, but Lynch is only going to be able to truly put it together and miss bats when he can utilize both the changeup and the slider. And I’m concerned that he doesn’t have the fastball velocity to make it happen.

I’ve got tickets to tomorrow afternoon’s game with your name on them, but those I’ve contacted can’t (or don’t want to) go. So now it’s as simple as this: If you want to go and can make it to a mid-week day game, the first person to leave a comment gets the tickets. I’ll send them to the email you subscribed with unless you tell me otherwise. May the fastest subscriber win!

Man, I didn’t even really get into some of the other craziness from this game. Carlos Hernandez was excellent again. Garcia had two more hits. Olivares returned with two hits and was productive. And they did all of this with Witt going 0 for 5. The bottom four in the lineup were a combined 9 for 14 with four doubles, two triples, nine runs scored and seven RBIs. You want to talk about how you balance a lineup. That’ll do it.

And now tonight, we watch as Ryan Yarbrough tries to up his trade value with another strong performance coming back from his scary situation. I’m going to go out on a limb and say tonight won’t be quite so crazy, but, hey, I’ve been wrong before.