When last I sat down to write a game thread, the Royals were at .500, and while they had just lost to the Twins, they’d absolutely whalloped them the night before in the rain. Things were looking up as a really tough opponent came into town. That night, I got to write a recap about a doubleheader split, which saw the team score eight more runs in a game. Since that night, the Royals have only won one more contest and scored a total of twelve runs in their last five games.
One reason I always advocate
for evaluating the team no more often than a series-by-series basis is that a loss like last night’s can feel devastating, but if they win the next three, it won’t register nearly as poorly. Of course, to do that, the Royals will have to win the next three, and that starts with winning tonight.
The good news is that the White Sox do not currently have a lefty scheduled for the rest of the series, and that also starts with tonight. Chicago will send a journeyman double-first-namer, Davis Martin, to the mound in the second of four against the southsiders. Martin is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA to start the year. And sure, those numbers are shiny, but the underlying metrics seem to suggest he’s basically the same pitcher as last year. That would be the year he had a much less impressive 4.10 ERA.
Martin faced the Royals three times last year and got progressively better each time. He allowed 4 runs in 4.1 innings the first start, 2 runs in 6 innings the second start, and pitched 6 scoreless in his final outing against the good guys. The White Sox only won that middle game, though. He mixes six pitches together pretty evenly, but his offspeed and breaking stuff gets absolutely destroyed when it gets hit, but his fastballs aren’t much better. His sinker does good numbers, so that will be the pitch to avoid swinging at if possible.
Kris Bubic will take the bump for KC, wearing their new City Connects for the first time. He’s had kind of an odd season through two starts; he’s struggled through the first inning of each of them and then dominated for the remainder of the game. It’s a bit reminiscent of late-aughts starter Kyle Davis in that regard, though he is much better once he gets going than Davis ever was. Hopefully, the Royals won’t need to attempt similar shenanigans as they did with Davies. For those that don’t remember him, for a period of time the Royals had him pitch a simulated first inning in the bullpen to try and get him over that hump. It didn’t work.
Regardless, pitching hasn’t really been the Royals’ problem – setting aside the bullpen games last Saturday and on Wednesday, at least. So the Royals will need to hit. Bobby Witt Jr. has started tattooing the ball, but Kyle Isbel’s hot streak seems to have worn off, and not enough other guys are helping the star out, either. Maybe that will change tonight.
Lineups
The Royals are bringing a lefty-heavy lineup against Martin with five southpaws plus a switch-hitter. Michael Massey is getting his first start at second base after a less-than-optimal start in left field earlier this week. That makes sense because Martin has struggled far more against lefties this year, last year, and over his career. It makes the team vulnerable to left-handed relievers because after Salvy in the four-spot, only Collins in the eight spot breaks up the parade of wrong-handers. Still, that’s why Lane Thomas, Jonathan India, and Starling Marte are on the bench, I suppose.
The White Sox have only got two lefties in there to face Bubic. That shouldn’t matter much, though, except that maybe he can give one of them a golden sombrero.
