Final Score: SF 2 | KC 0
Overall Record: 82-74
Winning/Losing Pitcher
- W: Blake Snell (5-3 | 3.12 ERA)
- L: Seth Lugo (16-9 | 3.03 ERA)
- S: Ryan Walker (9 | 1.94 ERA)
Key Highlights
It’s hard to think that this series could’ve gotten worse, but it definitely did. While Detroit took two of three from Baltimore this weekend, the Royals get swept by the Giants. And Detroit is now tied with KC for the second wild card spot, although the Royals do own the season series tiebreaker against them. Today was just the final straw for Royals fans everywhere as the offense continues to slump and slump. Not scoring a run at all on Sunday and finishing the weekend series scoring a total of one run, and that one run happened on Friday. This past week has just been a nightmare for anyone that claims to follow the Royals in any capacity. The crazy thing about it too? We all thought that each day was going to be the day they got out of it. Because they’ve shown throughout the year that they’ll pop out of nowhere and finally be fixed again, at least for a small amount of time. But even Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez can’t get anything going. On Sunday, and many times across the series, the Kansas City duo had multiple opportunities to come through with runners in scoring position or in other ways to come through and they couldn’t. All the offense they could muster on Sunday was a few hits and very little opportunity on the bases. Every time they’d get on, they would get in their own way. And even Seth Lugo, who was really quite impressive in this game, had some cheap hits turn into some offense for the Giants. The only runs they could score off the righty was in the second inning, where an RBI single and triple gave the Giants all the firepower they needed.
Seth Lugo logged 200 innings pitched on Sunday, which is the only achievement that was good for the Royals this afternoon. A very important personal achievement for Seth Lugo though, who was told many times that he couldn’t be a starter because he couldn’t pitch long enough. He starts crafting the finishing touches to the amazing year that he has had, as he finishes the day going seven strong, only allowing those two runs in the second. He would be the player of the game in this one, as he was the only one that truly contributed anything in the afternoon.
So that will be how the Royals end the season at home. With a 45-36 record, they truly did play better than that it felt like. I mean they were 15 games above .500 at home until the last homestand, so there’s gotta be something there. They really were a show to watch at home, with Bobby Witt Jr. coming alive and batting .400 for the good majority of the season. We really did have some magical moments at the K this season, and fingers crossed that we can have a few more 2024 games at Kauffman Stadium.
This was more than a tough one to swallow, this was just the completion of a final destination course the Royals unintentionally set up for themselves. Last week at this time they had a magic number of 8, with an opportunity to pretty much punch their ticket to the postseason. That magic number is now 6, and it JUST turned to six Sunday evening after two Twins loses on the day. The didn’t make up the ground and now they’re knee deep in the playoff race and have an opportunity to lose out on it. There’s only one thing they can do, and that is to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and just win some ball games here. That’s all they have the control to do, so that’s what they can do. It is very important to cash in here against a bad team, because then in the final season of the year they face a Braves team that could still be fighting for a playoff spot. But first on to Washington.
Summary of the Next Game
The boys have got to turn this thing around, and it’s now a close race in the AL wild card picture because of their losing of late. The Royals have to win a few more games here down the stretch, and now we result to a bit of panic mode. They still hold a playoff spot, but foot on the gas pedal in the final week of the season and they have to capitalize against w sub .500 team. The Royals head to Washington to face the struggling Nationals. The bright side? The ace is on the hill to end this nasty slide. Cole Ragans heads to the mound for possibly his last start of the 2024 season. He’s been remarkable, but that doesn’t matter to be frank. Just go out there and get a win and continue your chances to get to the postseason, that’s all you can do. The Nats will throw out a young lefty, Mitchell Parker, who has been reliable for them this season with a 4.44 ERA in 146 innings. Moral of the story? The Royals need a W on Monday evening, and you have to just keep going. Nobody is writing sympathy cards for you down the stretch, you have to just go out and take it. Let’s see how this series goes, and make sure you have your superstitions in check, cause they’ll take all the help they can get. This is when we find out who this team is, and I hope we are happy with the result. 5:45p at Nationals Park in DC. God help their soul.
