A happy return for the Royals
The Royals are back home, Cole Ragans is back on the mound and the dynamic offensive duo never left but does just enough to secure a win. Comfortable.
A day after flexing their offensive muscle on the road in Baltimore, hitting 10 home runs in the course of two games, including a franchise-record seven in Sunday’s win, the Royals returned to the comforts of home and settled back into their familiar offensive flow.
The ball stayed in the yard, the bats strung together the bare minimum of hits to cash in three baserunners and they relied on the return of Cole Ragans and four relievers to shut out the hapless Chicago White Sox. The 3-0 victory was the Royals 12th in their last 14 games. The shutout was their fifth in their last 10 games.
No team is hotter than your Kansas City Royals.
Were you concerned about the health of Cole Ragans after he missed a turn in the rotation with what the Royals said was a “very mild left groin strain?” Unnecessary!
There was a bit of rust for Ragans, which was understandable. He allowed at least one baserunner in each of the five innings he worked, but he punched out 11 Sox and the fastball was lively. Once again, the changeup was the star of the show.
I need to start tagging these GIFs as NSFW. Ragans racked up 17 swings and misses on the night, with six of them coming against the cambio. He recorded eight on the four-seamer.
With those 11 strikeouts, it was the fourth time this season Ragans has had a game with double-digit strikeouts. No other pitcher in the majors has more than two.
We’ve discussed this here before, but if there’s an issue with Ragans’ starts, is that the pitch counts can pile up. That happened again on Monday. The lefty needed 66 pitches to get through the first three innings. Sure, seven of the nine outs he recorded through three were strikeouts and that alone tends to elevate the pitch count. More to the point, though, Ragans was leaving the fastball in the zone just enough that the White Sox hitters were spoiling the pitch. This was the location and pitch types of all of the balls fouled off against Ragans.
Eleven of those fouls came with two strikes on the hitter. Here were those pitches:
I think it’s interesting to contrast the charts above with the locations and pitch types on his swings and misses.
The changeup down and in the zone is just a filthy pitch, as you could see from the GIF above. When it comes to the four-seamers, maybe Ragans needed to elevate just a bit more. He was firmly in the upper half of the zone with the heater when he was looking for that third strike. Maybe he needed to be up and either at the very top of the zone or just on the other side. The margins are always fine and Ragans is generally able to make that happen. As I noted, it wasn’t surprising to see him scuffle with command after 11 days on the sidelines.
That being said, I’ll take five innings like Ragans gave the Royals on Monday. Feels greedy to want more.
Even when the boys aren’t launching bombs, the offense continues to revolve around Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia.
The duo teamed up in the fourth inning to put the Royals on the board. Witt singled to lead off the inning. He swiped second and went to third on a wild pitch. After Salvador Perez walked, Garcia singled to bring home Witt.
Garcia didn’t play a part in the run that came across in the fifth, but Witt did. Kyle Isbel bunted for a single, and advanced 90 feet when Jonathan India singled. Isbel scored on a Witt double.
Both those runs scored with one out in the inning, and there was the potential for more, but again…the Royals offense reverted to the norm. Witt and Garcia can only do so much.
The final run of the night was scored by Garcia in the eighth. He drew a one-out walk—his second on the night—swiped second, advanced to third on a fly out and scored on a Drew Waters double.
The Royals did just enough to score those three runs. Credit to Garcia and Witt for being pivotal in those mini rallies.
About that other Garcia walk…this was a insanely impressive plate appearance by the third baseman to lead off the sixth.
Garcia fell behind 1-2 and then dug in and saw 11 pitches in the plate appearance, fouling off five pitches before taking a close pitch just off the plate to draw the walk.
Garcia took second on a passed ball and the Royals had something cooking. He swiped third. Garcia then suffered what can only be described as a momentary lapse of baserunning reason.
No need to GIF the entire play because you know as soon as they throw behind Garcia that he’s doomed.
That was just a bad, bad TOOTBLAN. I mean, most TOOTBLANs are bad. This one was abysmal. Madness. Even Steve Stone on the White Sox broadcast called it “embarrassing.” If the guys who are forced to watch White Sox baseball think the play was embarrassing…
I don’t know why I even brought this up. It didn’t impact the outcome of the game and it shouldn’t take away what has been a brilliant stretch of baseball from Garcia. He’s as hot as he’s ever been at the plate.
And after going through something of a baserunning slump in April, he’s found his footing of late as he’s been successful in his last six stolen base attempts. He’s now nine for 14 on the season, a 64 percent success rate. Still, not good, but an improvement of where he was a couple of weeks ago.
The defensive play of the game was made by…checks notes…Vinnie Pasquantino. Yes, Pasquantino. With a runner on first that he was holding on the bag, he retreated to the edge of the dirt between first and second to grab a flare off the bat of Edgar Quero. It was a fantastic catch.
What I was just as impressed by was the presence of mind of Daniel Lynch IV to break for first base as the runner, Miguel Vargas, was running for second and was suddenly adrift in no-man’s land. Pasquantino fired a perfect throw to Lynch, who got caught up with Vargas at the bag but was able to keep his poise while losing his shoe to finish the double play.
Central Issues
Guardians at Nationals - postponed
The Guardians were the only other AL Central team on the schedule and their game in Washington D.C. was banged. Feels like a good moment to check in on the standings.
The Royals remain the hottest team in the Central, if not all of baseball.
I was greatly amused by the broadcasters talking about how good Lynch was defensively before he helped Pasquantino complete that double play. I'm used to just kind nodding along and not paying too much attention when they go off like that, but Lynch sure made it seem like they were actually on to something this time.
To use just one word-efficient.
Nice to see stealing. BWJ following up on his vow to improve on last year's total.
Maikel is becoming a DUDE; so grateful BWJ is getting that level of support from SOMEbody.
Disagree with poll on Royals Review showing fans overwhelming calling for India to move to 2B.
1) He will improve in left and it's not like there's anybody else who can reliably fill that role.
2) Massey is a superb second baseman, he and BWJ combo well. That DP Sunday was athletic and
balletic. Sublime. At least wait til Memorial Day to see if his bat can come around. I see progress.
Vinnie, to my eyes, is really coming along fine with his glove; if he'd just be more careful ranging.
Lynch is very athletic defensively. Too bad he won't have enough chances to qualify for Gold Glove.