Final Score: SDP 11 | KC 8

Overall Record: 35-24

Winning/Losing Pitcher

• W: Yuki Matsui (3-0 | 2.88 ERA)
• L: John Schrieber (3-1 | 3.00 ERA)
• S: Jose Suarez (17 | 0.72 ERA)

Royals Player of the Game

Bobby Witt Jr.

3-5, 2 RBI, 2 R

On a night where things got out of hand, and got a bit interesting again, Bobby Witt Jr. just seems like the most logical guess. Could pick Michael Wacha, but most of the game is played after he leaves the mound, even though Wacha is having a pretty good last couple starts. Anyway, Bob is the player of the game for the type of hits he had. Two RBI singles, both on pitches that he had to fight off, and only a couple people in all of baseball could get a single on those pitches. Which is why Bobby Witt Jr.’s ceiling is crazy, and we’ve already seen extreme greatness from him so far. If he can also have little dunk singles on pitches no one should hit, everyone should be on the lookout. Keep in mind, his hit tool was technically his best one coming out of the draft. It just takes time to catch up to legitimate Major League pitching. So yes, picking Bob is a bit of a copout, but in one that was a bit lopsided for a time, he’s the most logical answer. Even in a loss, you can tell he is just one of the best players on the field in all of baseball. I mean, he’s called Bobby Baseball for a reason.

Key Highlights

We had a pretty solid pitching matchup in this one with Michael Wacha and former division foe Dylan Cease trading punches through the first five innings of this one. Then when the sixth hit, everyone wanted a shot at the bat rack. Wacha ended up walking a batter, giving up a single, then Fernando Tatis Jr. was himself and drove in a runner with an RBI double. Match that with a Jurickson Profar single and the friars are up by two headed to the bottom half. But the Boys in Blue matched that with Bobby Witt Jr driving in a run, and Vinnie Pasquantino tying the game with an RBI ground rule double. 

That kept Bob at third with a chance for Nelson Velazquez to drive him in on a sacrifice fly. And the Royals head with the lead into the top of the seventh. Where Angel Zerpa continues his impressive season out of the pen. We’ll see how they use him the rest of the year with others performing this way….we’ll get to that later. 

We go to the top of the eighth and all hell breaks loose. The Padres get SEVEN consecutive SINGLES, with a total of 11 of 14 batters in the inning recording a hit. It was like Oprah giving away a car to everyone, “You get a hit, you get a hit, you get a… “. Surprisingly this was all started by John Schrieber, who finished the last inning, but loads the bases without recording an out in the eighth. Leading to James McArthur coming in and not recording an out himself, while giving up four earned by himself and also giving up the inherited runners from Schrieber. 

Doesn’t stop there, because recently promoted Will Klein comes in and gives up a couple runs too, but this isn’t his fault. He just has to be the fresh arm that comes in and tries to shut this down. He ends up completing the inning. But the totals are: Eleven hits on NINE RUNS in the inning. A complete meltdown by this Royals bullpen that we haven’t truly seen in this capacity. And it starts to raise some questions on if James McArthur is ready to handle high pressure scenarios. Since his blown save, he just has looked frazzled out there. All in all, I think we can attribute it to a bad night and the Padres being hot at this time. But it is still concerning for sure. The most consistent guy messes up, and then your closer blows it up even more? They will look to update the bullpen moving forward I guarantee. Couple shoutouts from the Padres side, Luis Arraez, known Royals butcher, had four more hits. Profar having three hits, and seven of the Padres starters had multi-hit performances. With a total of 18 hits on the night. Say what you want about Royals pitching, but when you do that, you’re just having a good night. We had a position player pitching, with Nick Loftin doing better than everyone who pitched in the 8th. Not allowing a run at all. The Royals tried their best to come back in this one. And man did they come close. Nelson Velazquez had two runners on in an 11-8 game, had already homered previously in the inning, and tags a ball DEEP to left field, goes back at the warning track, at the wall! And Profar just has enough room to bring it in. In a lot of other ballparks it’s out, but not Kauffman Stadium. And that’s the beauty of baseball.

The Royals had a five run inning going with RBI from Bobby Witt Jr, Maikel Garcia, Velazquez, and Freddy Fermin. So the stage was getting set, but they just fell short. Could you imagine though, them tying the game after being down by so much? The fact we’re merely talking about this I think is the difference for this team this year. Yes, they’ve done this a bit before this year, and a loss is a loss is a loss. But, resiliency is a hard thing to teach, and if they continue to have that. They WILL make it over the hump and actually come back in the ninth at some point this season.

Summary of the Next Game

The Royals continue their series against the Padres on Saturday in KC, as the Royals  try to wash off the sting in this one. Hopefully that 9th inning magic will bleed into the next one. Joe Musgrove heads to the mound for San Diego who has surprisingly struggled a bit this year with an ERA in the 5s. Now that I say that, I’m sure he’ll turn into his old self, who has thrown a no hitter, and has been a Cy Young candidate in the National League the past few years. Alec Marsh is on the hill for the Royals who struggled a bit on Monday in Minnesota allowing five runs, although he went seven innings for the boys. He’ll look to face one of his tougher matchups yet this season, with an offense that, as we saw last night, can explode at any time. 3:10 at Kauffman Stadium is the time for this one. Let’s hope they can get to Musgrove and get a gutsy victory.