The Kansas City Royals opened their season with a series loss against the Minnesota Twins. The Royals lost their first two games due to a lackluster offense and late-inning bullpen blowups that made the games difficult to recover from.
It was far from a weekend of all things negative, though, as the Royals offense showed up in full force on Sunday. They chased Twins’ starter Bailey Ober out of the game in the second inning, scoring eight runs off of him, including three home runs. Brady Singer was stellar on the mound going seven innings while striking out 10 and only giving up three hits to help the Royals get their first victory.
Here are three things that stood out the most from the Royals’ opening weekend.
Don’t panic!
It can be easy to panic early on in a season when you’re team doesn’t just hit the ground running. It is good to remember that the Royals faced a pretty good Twins team, who had two really good pitchers on the mound Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan, in the first two games. Yes, of course, you want to see more offense, but it can be challenging for hitters to get your timing and rhythm down early. I’d probably be slightly more worried if the Royals offense were shut out in game three. Regardless of the struggles, Maikel Garcia hit two home runs in the leadoff spot when there were questions about whether he would tap into his power or not, and MJ Melendez looked to have a newly refined approach at the plate. He wasn’t selling out for power and was taking more of a line-drive approach, which led him to hitting over .400 on the weekend.
The second massive positive is the starting rotation. A rotation led by Brady Singer and Jordan Lyles last year showed off how important it is to have good solid depth. So much pressure was placed on those two to be “the guys,” and it likely led to many struggles. This year, the hope is it will be a different story with the newcomers, and the difference showed early this weekend. Cole Ragans looked like part of this team’s ace, and Seth Lugo proved to fans why the Royals felt it important to bring him in. He’s a solid number two or number three at worst. The Royals obviously felt the need to address the rotation depth issue and it paid early dividends. The rotation accumulated an ERA of 0.95, and the team ERA was 3.00. It was a nice sight to see.
Bobby Witt, Jr. is really good at baseball
You’ll notice in the section above that I didn’t mention one guy when I talked about the Royals’ offensive success… Bobby Witt, Jr. That’s because he deserves his own section. Guys, in case you didn’t know, he’s really good at baseball. Witt had himself a series slashing .545/.615/1.273 with three doubles, a triple, and one home run. On Sunday, he finished just a double shy of the cycle. He was absolutely on fire.
He is just a once-in-a-generation talent and I know Royals fans are pleased the front office signed him to a long-term extension. Not only did Bobby flash how good he was on the offensive side of the ball, but he also made a couple of incredible defensive plays this weekend. We get to watch Witt do these things for at least the next six years, which is one hell of a treat.
The bullpen had it’s struggles
The Royals were in both games one and two, thanks to the stellar pitching performances we mentioned earlier. On Thursday night, Nick Anderson looked good in his debut, covering an inning of work with no runs. Angel Zerpa followed with one inning and two strikeouts. The Royals were only down 2 to 1 going into the ninth. That is when Chris Stratton came in, and things unraveled. Stratton struggled with his command and control, walking two batters and eventually allowing two earned runs to give the Twins a 4-1 lead, making it much more difficult for the Royals bats to come back in the bottom of the ninth.
The bullpen woes didn’t end in game two. John Schreiber came in relief of Seth Lugo and looked good in the seventh for his first hold with the Royals. James McArthur gave up two doubles, blowing the Royals’ 1-0 lead in the eighth. Will Smith came into the ninth, and it really unraveled then. He gave up four runs while walking two. He, like Stratton, struggled mightily with his command. The Royals focused this offseason on really bolstering one of the league’s worst bullpens last year, and the early returns from Stratton and Smith aren’t what you are hoping for, especially in those close games against a division rival. You hope that this is just a blip on the radar for the bullpen, and they bounce back in the upcoming series this week.
