In the second inning, Rookie of the Year candidate Carter Jensen crushed a belt-high cutter to the empty right field bleachers for a line drive home run. The homer was Jensen’s third of the year, and put the Royals ahead 2-1 against their divisional rivals, the Guardians.
But that hit turned out to be the only Royals hit all afternoon. When you only get one hit, you’re gonna lose the game, and lose the game the Royals did in a 2-1 final score.
Granted, today’s game was a little odd. The
Royals are speedrunning weird weather games, with their 13-run rainfest victory against the Twins last Wednesday an unusually wet and foggy contest as one example. Today’s contest was another example, and Nick Kappel—the Royals’ Director of Media Relations—pointed out that this was the third-coldest first pitch temperature at a balmy 33 degrees. Cleveland, baby!
Royals batters weren’t totally barred from the experience of running the bases. Kansas City actually drew eight walks, with seven different batters netting their free pass to first base. But no one could get a hit. A little of this was bad luck, as other than Jensen’s home run the Royals had four batted balls with an expected batting average of .570 or better and all of them turned into outs. Of course, the Guardians—miserable little luck merchant gremlins that they are—got hits on all six of their batted balls with an expected average of .570 or better.
Kansas City had their best chance in the eighth inning with one out, Bobby Witt Jr. walked and stole second base. Vinnie Pasquantino walked, and then Witt and pinch runner Lane Thomas executed a double steal. But Salvador Perez had popped up just before, and Jensen struck out immediately after.
And with Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg unavailable today, and with Carlos Estevez on the injured list, manager Matt Quatraro was forced to turn to his fourth-best reliever in the ninth inning. Predictably, Cleveland was able to do damage against John Shcreiber, effortlessly sandwiching a walk between a pair of singles to squeeze a runner across and excite all 16 remaining fans in attendance.
Hey, Noah Cameron was really good! He threw 5.2 innings, striking out five against one walk and one run. Unfortunately, the Kansas City offense seems intent on forcing their starters to throw near-perfect games for a chance at winning; they came into today with a .653 OPS with runners in scoring position and a .589 OPS in high-leverage situations. Sooner or later, they’ll need to do some damage.
Also, whoever replaced Bobby Witt Jr. with Alcides Escobar, please put them back. It’s getting a little old.
