Record: 28-25 (L2)
W: Jhoan Duran (3-0, 1.16 ERA)
L: Daniel Lynch IV (3-1, 1.57 ERA)
The score was technically 18-3.
Kansas City hitters struck out 18 times against the Minnesota Twins over a 2-hour and 48-minute game, often interspersed with classic Royals singles in nearly every inning. Meanwhile, Twins hitters struck out three times and walked four. Fwice? Like twice but for four? I dunno.
The Royals definitely looked ready to hit against a guy named Zebby, who rose to the occasion with his 97 MPH fastball getting 34% called strikes + whiffs while accounting for nearly half of his pitches thrown. Royals hitters only whiffed on the pitch four times on nineteen swings with a lot of annoyingly-called strikes getting… well, called, whether or not they were actually in the zone. Despite the high strikeout numbers, the Royals fought Matthews pretty well, forcing him to throw long innings and ultimately breaking through with a 2-run Maikel Garcia single.
Zebby Matthews would be out of the game with just four innings of work to show for it, and the Royals took advantage of the early bullpen appearance. Jonathan India walked to start the fifth inning, followed by Bobby Witt Jr. striking out looking on one pitch in the zone, redeemed by Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez collecting RBI hits back-to-back.
With Michael Wacha speedrunning a gem with under 40 pitches to this point, it looked like a comfortable Saturday afternoon for the Royals. Sadly, that comfort would be thrown out pretty much immediately as Harrison Bader would lead the inning with a first pitch home run. The next hitter, Willi Castro, became a hit hitter as Wacha’s four-seamer would miss the zone but not Castro’s hand. A foul-ground popout would be the first mark of progress on the inning before Christian Vázquez singled, followed by a Trevor Larnach groundout to advance the runners. Both would score on a Ty France single.
Wacha managed to escape the inning before completely evaporating the lead, but the Twins would keep a strong hold on their momentum. Jorge Alcala pitched in relief and despite walking Freddy Fermin, would ultimately strike out Jonathan India, Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez, all on whiffs. The next Twins hitter made it the true beginning of the end.
Michael Wacha would depart with a final line of 5.0 IP / 7 H / 4 ER / 1 BB / 1 K. He had only allowed three home runs in the entire season to this point, so the twin home runs of today make this a particularly bad start more than any other indicator. It’s also a strange line, as he only threw 62 pitches on the day. It could be argued that Wacha had no business pitching the sixth inning after almost blowing the lead in the fifth, but with such a low pitch count and him being so reliable of a starter to this point, it’s easy to see why Quatraro was willing to wait and see.
The Royals’ relief unit was fine. Angel Zerpa had an exceedingly rare clean inning, striking out one. John Schreiber and Lucas Erceg would follow and post more zeroes, although Erceg did generate a scary-looking flyout. He also got swings and misses on fastballs down the pipe, so he’s still probably his usual self despite this week. Instead, the late collapse came from Daniel Lynch IV of all people, as his two walks would eventually lead to a Brooks Lee walk-off hit.
Pitching is easy to scrutinize with such standout individuals, but the offense as a whole was the real disappointment this game. The Royals have continued their slap-happy approach to hitting, as they did reach base 15 times with 4 walks, but a 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and 12 men left on base sounds typical for the 2025 Royals. This should be emphasized greater: The Royals struck out 18 times. That is a lot even for a good lineup that strikes out a lot, but KC has the lowest strikeout percentage of any offense. It can be said again that there were some really stinky calls against the Royals, but only so much can be blamed on officiating or luck. A lot more can be blamed on watching outright crushable pitches.
It was a familiarly frustrating feeling of the Royals doing a handful of things correctly on offense. In the same inning as these screencaps, Bobby reached base with a single and then stole twice. Vinnie was able to get on with a hit by pitch and Mark Canha would draw a walk after Garcia’s strikeout. Despite the two terrible strikeouts, it still felt like the Royals were capable of clutching this. Bobby’s single was actually symbolic of this, as he had struck out four times in the game previously. It seemed like a horrible day for him, but he ended up making up for it and it was easy to overlook the earlier mistakes. If Drew Waters could draw a competitive at bat, the narrative of all the strikeouts and the weird Wacha start and the Erceg scare would be erased entirely.
Instead, he grounded out on the first pitch.
Even despite all this, Bobby would do everything in his power to salvage a win by making a basket catch in left field, only attainable with his speed.
Unfortunately, it was for nothing. The Royals were walked off by the Twins for the second game in a row and hope to salvage the series tomorrow.
Image Credit: Gerald Herbert (AP Photo)
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