Yikes. What a rough end to what was a fantastic game for seven innings.
The Royals lost 4-3 on a walk-off to the Orioles on Thursday night. The game was delayed by five hours because Major League Baseball hates rescheduling games (but loves policing uniforms and promoting baseball in Las Vegas).
Despite the long and unnecessary delay, Cole Ragans threw another gem, holding one of the favorites in the American League to only one hit in 6.1 innings of work.
Unfortunately, the bullpen failed to hold onto Ragans and the Royals’ lead in the last two innings.
James McArthur and Angel Zerpa combined to give up two runs in the eighth. In the ninth, Will Smith, fresh off a save from the previous night, struggled to “reign the zone” and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in 0.2 IP.
Despite the deflating loss, Cristian Martinez and I popped online for another podcast, discussing the highs and lows of the Royals’ first six games. Even though the loss definitely hurt our pre-podcast vibe, we could still glean many positives from the Royals’ start, especially from the hitting and the pitching staff.
Here’s the YouTube video of our podcast this evening.
Here is a brief rundown of some things we discussed:
- The Royals’ starting pitching staff has been legit overall. In addition to Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Brady Singer, and Alec Marsh have been excellent, and it’s been promising to see since the rotation has been an area of struggle for the Royals since 2015.
- We focused primarily on Bobby Witt, Jr. on the hitting end of things. Even though he got a massive extension, he hasn’t let the pressure of that deal get to him in these first six games.
- We also mentioned MJ Melendez as someone who stood out. After struggling out of the gate so much in 2023, he’s much more locked in to start this season.
- We showed Salvy’s stats but didn’t talk much about him, even though we should have. Salvy is hitting .375 with a 1.025 OPS and had three hits tonight. He’s one of the biggest free-swingers in the league, but he continues to be one of the best “bad-ball” hitters, up there with guys like Vladimir Guerrero and Pablo Sandoval.
- Hunter Renfroe and Adam Frazier haven’t been great. That said, Frazier will be out of the lineup as soon as Massey is healthy, and Renfroe could get benched in favor of Nick Pratto, who’s mashing right now in Omaha.
- The bullpen isn’t good and is a big reason this team isn’t 3-3 or even 4-2. On the other hand, if a team struggles in one area, the bullpen is it because it can be addressed and affected so quickly. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the bullpen look much different by the first or second week of May.
Check out our latest episode and subscribe if you haven’t already! Thanks for checking us out. Let’s hope the Royals can bounce back and build some positive momentum back home in a four-game set against the White Sox starting tomorrow.
Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
The Royals Reporter 