Junis dominates; Ramírez dooms Royals
The Royals have some thinking to do when it comes to their rotation.
So often, things fail to live up to their hype. Then there are times when things not only live up to the hype, they exceed all sense of expectations.
The latter is where Jakob Junis’s start on Wednesday in Cleveland falls.
Armed with that nifty new cutter and a boatload of confidence, Junis held Cleveland in check for his entire outing. Appearing as an “Opener” who hasn’t pitched multiple innings in a game since a Cactus League outing on March 24, a reasonable best-case scenario for his start would’ve been three innings. Maybe once through the order.
But Junis was so damn efficient, his innings so low stress, that he went back out for the fourth inning. And then the fifth. By the time Junis hit the showers his line looked like this:
5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO
Compare that to his full spring training line:
7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 SO
What we saw in the desert in March absolutely translated to Cleveland in April. Who knew that could happen?
Cleveland hitters were certainly aggressive and that helped, but Junis executed his game plan flawlessly.
I’m less convinced about Junis’s pitch classifications than I was previously. I’ll report what Statcast is finding, but take it with a grain of salt.
Some of these cutters are sliders. And some of the 4-seamers are the cutters. However, on the pitch classified above as a cutter, Junis was wildly successful with seven swings total, good for five complete misses and two fouls. No balls were put in play.
Here is a pitch classified as a cutter to Franmil Reyes on a 2-2 pitch:
It has the second-hardest “cutter” thrown on the afternoon. It sure has a lot of slider action.
The pitch classified as a slider was good for five called strikes and one swing and miss. For six pitches total, it registered six strikes. The lack of swings (along with the solo miss) leads me to believe that Cleveland batters were not reading this pitch at all. Supremely effective, as we would expect from a Junis slider.
Here is a 3-1 slider to Jake Bauers.
It certainly looks like a different pitch from the one above.
Whatever is going on, Junis has just become one of the most interesting pitchers on the Royals’ staff. It feels like he’s hit the “reset” button on his repertoire and is once again a prospect in that his potential has seemed to expand. Even after over 475 big league innings, Junis has reinvented himself. He’s not the pitcher we thought he was.
On Wednesday in Cleveland it manifested itself into an absolute clinic.
Rotation impact
With an off-day on Friday, the Royals could forego the fifth starter one more time through the rotation. Or they could recognize the need for keeping their starters fresh and hang with a fifth starter in the mix. Plus, with the success Junis had on Wednesday, he absolutely deserves another turn in the rotation. That would put him on target to make a start on Tuesday the 13th at home against the Angels.
It just feels smart now that they’ve gone to the fifth starter once, to continue to keep five in the rotation. Skipping that spot would only hit the reset button on continuing to stretch out Junis. There’s obviously no guarantee he could give six or seven innings on his next outing. But after throwing 58 pitches against Cleveland, he should be good for around 75 pitches. There’s just no reason to skip a starter, even this early in the season. Especially when they openly discussed using a pseudo six-man rotation later in the summer.
Play of the game
José Ramírez home run off Jesse Hahn, bottom six
WPA: .317
Cleveland didn’t hold on to the lead the first time Ramírez homered, but it did tip the scales more in their favor at that point in the game.
The first pitch from Hahn was a slider down and in. Ramírez turned on it and crushed it foul. The next pitch was a sinker that was in his happy zone. It was almost 10 mph faster than the first pitch and Ramírez was able to turn on it.
The home run was preceded by a couple of chances to turn a double play that would’ve erased the baserunner. “Chances” may be a bit of a stretch. Both times the Royals were able to cash the lead runner into an out, but neither grounder was what you would call an ideal opportunity to turn two—although the second ground ball hit to Hunter Dozier at third looked like a half-decent chance. Still, when Ramírez stepped into the box, I couldn’t help but wonder if that would somehow bite the Royals and Hahn.
It did.
Professional plate appearances
You would expect an offense—even one as potent as we’ve seen from the Royals in the early going—to scuffle against the reigning AL Cy Young award winner Shane Bieber. They did. But there were a couple of moments of offensive zen that should be noted.
First, let’s start with Kyle Isbel who drew a walk in the seventh. I know, it’s not sexy, but it was a helluva plate appearance.
Bieber started the rookie off with a knuckle-curve just off the lower part of the strike zone that Isbel offered at and missed. The next pitch was a fastball that dotted the outer half of the zone for strike two.
Down two strikes, Isbel spit on another knuckle-curve that was lower than the first one he saw in the plate appearance. Bieber mixed those two pitches—one was fouled off the other two were taken for balls to work the count to 3-2.
Look at the location of the slider. Just off both edges of the plate, clearly a ball, but an amazing take from Isbel in that situation, against that pitcher.
Likewise, Nicky Lopez had a nice plate appearance in the frame, ambushing a Bieber fastball on the inner half to yank a single to right field to tie the game at two. Lopez also drew a four-pitch walk in his previous plate appearance. Lopez continues to look like a completely different offensive player than we saw as recently as March in the Cactus League. And his defensive prowess has translated to the other side of the bag at shortstop. What a pleasant surprise to open the year.
Central Issues
Minnesota 3, Detroit 2
A two-run double from Jorge Polanco in the sixth off Mathew Boyd provides the winning margin for the Twins.
Chicago 4, Seattle 8
A seven-run sixth inning dooms the Sox.
Up Next
The Royals try to spoil another home opener today against the White Sox in Chicago. Brad Keller, after having his previously scheduled start pushed back a day, will make the start for the Royals against Lance Lynn. Gametime is 3:10.