Record: 24-17 (L1)
W: Garrett Crochet (4-2, 1.93 ERA)
L: Cole Ragans (2-2 4.20 ERA)
This was the promised duel of aces… for a few innings, anyway.
Cole Ragans started off promising with three strikeouts in the first inning. Although he still had a bit of trouble with foul balls, the velocity was at maximum and the stuff looked excellent.
Bobby Witt Jr. was able to make noise in the bottom half with a double. Salvador Perez immediately singled afterward, but the shallow hit to center wasn’t enough to drive in Bobby comfortably. Crochet stranded the two by striking out Mark Canha and Maikel Garcia, thus igniting the pitcher’s duel.
Boston struck first with a small 2-out rally in the third inning. Jarren Duran singled and then Rafael Devers doubled to bring him in. The Royals would respond in the bottom half with a base hit from who else but Bobby Witt Jr. With a steal of second, a balk, and a bloop fly ball off Mark Canha’s bat that Kristian Campbell was unable to catch, the Royals quickly tied the game back up.
The stalemate would continue for one more inning, but Ragans would crumble in the fifth inning. With one out, he walked the #8 hitter, Carlos Narváez, then surrendered four straight hits. Ragans would finish the inning himself with two more strikeouts, but the Royals would be left to deal with a 3-run deficit. Cole Ragans’ final line was 5 IP / 7 H / 4 ER / 2 BB / 8 K on 95 pitches. This could, perhaps, be a game to just move on from without much thought.
Unfortunately, it would never get better from this point. Taylor Clarke pitched a decent inning, continuing his scoreless resurrection into the Royals bullpen. Beyond that, it was bad. Let’s just save time and say Angel Zerpa and Chris Stratton pitched. For what it’s worth, Stratton pitched the last two innings, gave up one run and struck out four, which is honestly great for what’s expected of him. It was really Zerpa who let the game get out of hand with two long balls totaling five runs for the Red Sox. He struck out none and walked one and now has the same ERA as Stratton, 7.20.
The bullpen implosion matters little with just one run from the hitting department. It was another instance of the Royals collecting a handful of hits, nine in total, but not being able to chain them together. They only walked once in the entire game and, despite scoring just one run, went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position. But to give credit where it’s due… Crochet did pitch really, really well.
The Royals’ 7-game losing streak has come to a brutal end, as the team hadn’t allowed more than 8 runs in a game all season. Needless to say, this one will be talked about little as the teams looks to move on.
Summary of the Next Game
This 3-game series will conclude tomorrow, Sunday, May 11th at 1:10 PM. Lucas Giolito will make his third start in a Red Sox uniform and his 24th career start versus the Royals. In the previous 23 starts, Giolito has an 11-6 record and a 3.60 ERA. Seth Lugo takes the mound for the Royals, hoping to continue his streak of quality starts. Lugo currently has a 2.84 ERA on the season with a 1.98 ERA in his last four starts.
Image credit: Daniel Kucin Jr. (Imagn Images)
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