Final Score: SF 2 | KC 1

Overall Record: 82-72

Winning/Losing Pitcher

• W: Mason Black  (1-4 | 5.88 ERA)
• L: Michael Wacha  (13-8 | 3.28 ERA)
• S: Camillo Doval (23 | 5.24 ERA)

Key Highlights

This isn’t rock bottom yet but damn, does it feel like it. After a piss poor performance on Friday night, the Royals are finding themselves with a five game losing streak at quite possibly the most important time of the season. Nobody here cares about what the Giants did tonight, they put together a hodgepodge of hits and barely made anything of it. Michael Wacha was carving them up all night, but couldn’t get a drop of offense to quench his thirst. I had the absolute pleasure of watching this masterpiece unfold before my very eyes, and to tell you this is the most upset I’ve been with the Royals the past decade is an understatement. But that’s the beauty of sports right? That you care so much that it makes you hurt? Right?!? 

Let’s break this one down shall we? The Giants get a run in the top of the first on an infield single from Heliot Ramos, who is a very solid player. It is awesome to see some of the stars from the other leagues that we don’t see often, and he is definitely one of them. He had a night, finishing a homer shy of the cycle. The other run from the Giants came in the top of the sixth, as a ground ball barely makes it past the reach of Michael Massey, going off his glove. Massey is actually shaken up after the play, but he ended up staying in the game. The literal only other thing that happened in this game is that Bobby Witt Jr. had a three hit game. He’s incredible, but he can’t do it all by himself. 

Player of the game is definitely Michael Wacha because he was everything the Royals asked him to be on Friday. He kept them in the game, kept the Giants hitters at bay pretty much all night, and was working that changeup yet again. Just such smart pitching by the veteran, and we need that to continue. I was going to say that the player of the game didn’t exist in this one, but that’s not fair to Michael Wacha, because he deserved a win but couldn’t get a lick of run support.

The bottom of the ninth is now here. The Royals are facing closer Camillo Doval and he is missing everywhere. He ends up walking the first two batters of the inning, Yuli Gurriel and Robbie Grossman, making the crowd incredibly fired up. Adam Frazier then strikes out on four pitches in his ridiculous at-bat. The thing that really makes you scratch your head as a Royals fan, is that a lot of people end up getting pinch hit for in this game, in the 7th, 8th, etc., but Frazier is not one of those. Yes, Dejong and Fermin have not been playing well of late, but you cannot tell me that Frazier is a better option. After the strikeout, then the most magical thing happens. With Maikel Garcia at the plate, he grounds one to short. Where Dairon Blanco, who is pinch running, beats out the throw at second. An absolute bonkers play that made the K go insane. 

All the energy was in your corner, the baseball gods were begging for you to come through. Literally all of the signs were pointed towards the Royals coming back in this one just for…Garrett Hampson to come to the plate. So we have the bases loaded here with one away, and he grounds one up the line and the crowd goes wild!..But it’s foul. 

There is actually a lot of discussion on this play, and Royals manager, Matt Quatraro, talks with the umpiring crew and they have a discussion. There is no communication to literally anyone about what was happening there. Afterward, we find out that they were meeting to make sure the play was NOT reviewable, which it wasn’t. But this whole conversation spans like 3-4 minutes of pacing around and they never let the crowd know what was going on. You have a microphone blue, use it! So we continue back and Hampson hits a sac fly to get a run in. But you could feel the energy in the stadium deflate from there. It was over. So much energy pent up for that one play that ends up not counting, and then an embarrassing at bat from Tommy Pham as he strikes out to end the game. Leaving Bobby Witt Jr. in the on-deck circle. 

Here’s the thing, if the Royals went down 1-2-3 to end the ninth, it would suck but at least we could wash it away quick and painless. This one, you almost come through, so who knows what that does to the psyche of this team. The Giants are a team you should win against and it shouldn’t have been particularly close, at least on Friday. The Giants sent out a starter that had a 7.08 ERA and an 0-4 record entering the game. This was the opportunity for the offense to bounce back, and right now I don’t know if they will. The only thing we can do is think: at least they’re not hitting their peak too soon. The other side of that coin though, will they ever peak again this season?

Summary of the Next Game

The Royals MUST bounce back on Saturday, because if they don’t, this potential path to the postseason is going to make every Royals fan go mentally insane. You can cut the tension with a knife, and the Royals are relying on Brady Singer to go out there and put them on his back. Singer will have his final home start of the 2024 regular season where he has been quite great all year. With a 2.90 ERA in his 15 starts at home, he will look to end this terrible streak that the Royals are on. The Giants will send out another one of their young pitchers, Landen Roupp. He has been working mostly out of the bullpen this season but his past two appearances have been starts. He has been pretty solid with a 3.02 ERA in 41.2 innings, but yet another young pitcher that the Royals have an opportunity to rough up. The Royals are better than this Giants team, and it’s time for them to take life by the balls and go show it. Because the past five games have been the exact opposite. With the weather updates, they changed this to a 4:10p start at Kauffman Stadium. Go out and support the boys, they need it more than ever.

Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)