Royals LOB and so might their season if they can't change things
In 7 games the Royals have managed to score only 20 runs. TWENTY!
That is good enough for DEAD LAST in the American League. In tonight’s game alone, the anemic offense allowed the bases to be loaded 3 times, only to see the opportunity squandered 3 times. Twice, back-up Danny Valencia came up in the situation, and twice he failed to produce. In fact only one Royal, Billy Butler, managed to get a hit with runners in scoring position, and that was a line drive to the left fielder that couldn’t score Eric Hosmer from second. Or maybe it could, but with only one out, why risk it…especially when your RBI guy is coming up next in Alex Gordon. Well, Alex proceeded to pop-up harmlessly, as did the inning. We may see an increase in risky base running moves by Dale Sveum, the Royals’ third base coach.
Another masterful performance from the pitching staff was again wasted by an abysmal offense. We can’t continue to waste these gems. Yordano Ventura pitched in front of a record crowd of 13,000 people tonight for his season opener (and that may be from counting the season tickets). This is another tragedy. No one went to this game…you had the chance to see Ventura start his Rookie of the Year campaign, and Rays phenom Chris Archer duel it out, and boy did they. Ventura struck out 6 in 6 innings, and only allowed two base runners on two hits. And Archer was almost as god with 4 strikeouts in 7 innings. A terrible waste of great pitching.
In the 9th, the Kansas City Royals brought out their closer in a tie ballgame. Hindsight being 20/20, I am not sure this is the move I make with a combined 2 hits on the season coming up in the 7-8-9 guys, but it’s still a decision I can’t fault manager Ned Yost for making. The decision seemed like it was going to pay off when Greg Holland got Rays right fielder Wil Myers to roll over very weakly to short. But Mike Moustakas ran in front of shortstop Alcides Escobar to bobble the ball and let Myers on (you may want to mark that hit in pencil if you are scoring at home…I can’t believe it wasn’t an error). Listen, I get it….I played third base, I know it is the third baseman’s ball. In Moose’s head he did nothing wrong. But the fact of the matter is, Escobar was coming in on the ball, he is a much better fielder, and I would argue has a better, equally accurate arm (though they both have struggled a bit throwing lately).
Regardless, Escobar is the better defensive player, and is making the easier play. Moose was trying to do too much, and this has to be addressed. Greg Holland gets the next two batters, but in doing so slipped one by Gold Glover Salvy Perez, allowing Myers to get to second. There was something wrong with Salvy’s glove, and he had to have it worked on just before this happened. Makes you wonder what happened (he dropped another ball later in the inning, and had another wild pitch). And with two outs, another weakly hit ball got past infielder Danny Valencia at second and straight to the high school arm that is, Nori Aoki. Run scored, Royals lose 1-0, and are now 3-4…..get used to it people.
If this team doesn’t figure it out offensively it will be a very long season of boring baseball. Well, except for the starting pitching, which should be good.