Tonight’s match was about the closest you can get to playoff baseball on May 1. Bryan Woo and Cole Ragans are both considered aces on their staffs, though you might not know it from how they performed tonight, and each took home a no-decision. There were multiple lead changes, and the bullpens were tested to their limits. In the end, the Royals emerged victorious in their first contest of a new month.
Things got off to a fast start for KC. If you sat down a little late, you’d have found KC in front
3-0 before you even got logged into Apple TV. Maikel Garcia singled to right, Bobby Witt Jr. singled to shortstop, and Vinnie Pasquantino – freshly returned to the lineup also singled to right to drive in the first run of the game. Connor Joe had a fielding error, and the Royals had a run in with runners at second and third with no outs for Salvador Perez.
Perez, of course, has been a lightning rod for criticism during the Royals’ slow start, but he whalloped a sinker that got a little too much of the plate down the left field line to drive in both runners. Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone both made outs, but Isaac Collins parachuted a pop-up down the left field line to bring home Salvy with two outs and give the Royals a 4-0 lead.
Cole Ragans, unfortunately, had a similarly rough start to his night. He walked J.P. Crawford, struck out Cal Raleigh, and then gave up a massive two-run home run to Julio Rodríguez. Rodríguez, of course, is known for turning things on once May starts and he didn’t take any time with that tonight. Ragans settled down a bit until the fifth inning when he allowed Connor Joe to bash his first MLB home run in more than two years. Fortunately, the bases were empty, and the Royals still led 4-3.
Over the same span, however, Bryan Woo hadn’t allowed a single baserunner since Collins’ single. But Vinnie put an end to that really quickly, leading off the sixth.
Two outs later, Jac joined his Italian-American brother.
Those dingers felt even more important as Cole gave up his third home run of the night in the bottom of the inning to Randy Arozerena. He was pulled for Nick Mears, who got the job done, recording the final two outs of the inning despite walking the first batter he faced.
Daniel Lynch IV, only recently installed as the Royals’ preferred seventh-inning pitcher, had to face the 9-1-2 hitters in the bottom of the inning. He got behind Leo Rivas 3-0 before striking him out looking, walked Crawford, struck out Raleigh, but gave up a game-tying home run to the magma-hot Rodriguez. Game tied.
But hey, Sal was leading off the top of the eighth. What could go wrong? Nothing! He led off with a double into left center, advanced to third on a Carter Jensen groundout, and then Matt Quatraro made the controversial decision to pinch-hit Lane Thomas for Jac Caglianone. It worked, and Thomas drove in the go-ahead run.
Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless eighth, striking out two and walking one. Then it was Lucas Erceg’s turn in the ninth inning. He needed to record a clean inning in order to prevent Julio Rodríguez from getting a chance to finish what he had started.
We diagnosed Erceg’s issues with his slider just yesterday, so Lucas led with his fastball and sinker against two lefties and the switch-hitting Raleigh. He threw no changeups; he threw only one slider. He got two pop-ups and struck out Crawford with a beautiful sinker. It took Erceg only 12 pitches, 8 of which were strikes, to pitch a perfect ninth. It’s still a bit concerning to see his slider and changeup MIA, but a win is a win!
The Royals have now scored 6+ runs in 6 of their last 9 games. Wouldn’t you know it, they’ve won 6 of their last 9! It’s probably not a coincidence that they did this while Vinnie was going 6-for-24, all but 1 for extra bases, plus walking 6 times and only striking out 3. Oh yeah, Salvy has gone 10-for-36 with 2 homers and 2 doubles in the same span. It’s almost like having the middle of the order show up in positive ways can make this offense look a lot better! Prior to the nine-game stretch, Salvy had a .536 OPS with Vinnie at .470. Checking in again after tonight’s game, they’re at .615 and .631, respectively. Sure, those still aren’t good, but they’re MASSIVE improvements in a very short span. That highlights how bad they were, how hot they’ve been, and how small the sample sizes still are in this young season.
The Royals will attempt to continue their perfect May tomorrow night, though it promises to be even more difficult than tonight. Seth Lugo (2.63 ERA) will go for the Royals, but Emerson Hancock (2.86 ERA) will go for the Mariners. It’s anyone’s guess if they can pull it off, but it sure would be sweet to go into Sunday afternoon with a chance to sweep their way to a winning road trip.
