New York to the Royals: Drop dead

New season. Same results.

These series in the Bronx carry an air of inevitability. The Royals will roll into New York to play a series at Yankee Stadium…They will not emerge victorious.

When play opened on Monday, the Yankees were allowing 5.1 runs per game. A normal offense would be licking their collective chops at the prospect of facing this staff. But the Royals are not a normal offense. They are Bobby and the hitless wonders.

The Royals scored six runs all series. Against a team that was allowing five runs a game. There’s regression and then there’s ridiculousness.

They lost all three games of the series, dropping the finale by a score of 4-3.

You want perspective? The Royals are now 206-322-1 (.390) against the Yankees in the regular season. That abysmal winning percentage is their worst against any AL opponent. They’ve lost 20 of their last 24 completed season series against the Yankees and have now dug themselves quite a hole for the 2025 series. The Royals are now 7-28 in their last 35 games in New York with 11 straight series losses.

As David St. Hubbins once said, that’s too much f***ing perspective.

How would you define a rally? I think it’s scoring three runs or more in an inning. That generally requires a sequence of at least four baserunners so the bats have to be in a groove to produce that kind of output. Yeah, three runs at a minimum constitutes a rally.

I pose the question because it’s been 97 innings since the Royals last scored three runs in an inning. It was the first inning of a 4-1 win over the Orioles on April 6. Ninety-freaking-seven innings. I could’ve said three runs (or more), but come on. This is a serious baseball newsletter.

Bobby excepting, is there anyone in this lineup who gives you confidence they can come through? At this point we’re left begging for a single, solitary run. Even that seems like a heavy lift.

Leadoff hitter Jonathan India, who I have come to like watch ply his craft, went 0-4 on Wednesday, although he drove in a run on a groundout. It was the tying run and the second run of an inning. Almost a rally! Imagine if he could’ve gotten a base hit. India owns a .310 OBP and a wRC+ of 66. (A reminder that wRC+ is found at FanGraphs and stands for Weighted Runs Created Plus. It measures a player’s total offensive value and is scaled where 100 is league average. India, at a 66 wRC+, is producing at 34 percent below the average offensive performer this year.)

Vinnie Pasquantino has lost 2.5 mph off his average exit velocity from a year ago and is hitting .200/.284/.354 with a 77 wRC+. Granted, he has been hitting the ball with a bit more authority of late, but his overall expected batting average and slugging percentage are both poor. I’m officially concerned about the guy.

Pasquantino went 1-4 on Wednesday with a single in the ninth. That brought up Salvador Perez as the go-ahead run. Perez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. He’s hitting .208/.260/.333 with a 68 wRC+ in the young season. Unlike Pasquantino though, Perez’s expected numbers are strong across the board. The results just haven’t been there. His current batting average on balls in play is .260, which would be the worst rate of his career. I am unconcerned. For now.

Maikel Garcia’s numbers still look solid, but his scorching first week of the season is still providing cover. Since April 5, he’s hitting .216/.211/.243 and he’s not pulling the ball like he was. This feels like a rerun from last season’s first month. He walked twice on Wednesday and was the unfortunate recipient of a glove to the face on a caught stealing. Still, his 108 wRC+ makes him the only Royal not named Bobby Witt Jr. who is providing better than league average offensive production.

From there, it just gets depressing. Michael Massey? An 11 wRC+. MJ Melendez who is still fiddling with his batting stance and struck out three times on Wednesday? A -1 wRC+. Yes, that’s a negative one. Hunter Renfroe didn’t play and is holding steady at a wRC+ of 6. Drew Waters, in Renfroe’s normal spot in right, seems committed to pissing away his last chance.

There are flashes…moments where you want to believe the breakout is coming. Pasquantino is barrelling the ball to the opposite field! Melendez homered! Alas. The hope is fleeting and good times don’t last long.

The Royals lineup is a wretched hive of offensive ineptitude.

Amazingly, with the pressure firmly on their shoulders, knowing that the margin for error is razor thin, the starting pitching remains a reason these games are close. Kris Bubic was Wednesday’s starter and gutted his way through five-plus innings. He wasn’t at his sharpest.

Bubic got into trouble in the third because he was leaving everything elevated in the zone. Witness.

That cluster of pitches from Bubic are thick in the nitro zone. If I were a pitching coach, my advice would be simple: Don’t leave your pitches there.

These were the pitches that Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe hit doubles on.

Judge doubled on the sweeper in the first pitch of his at bat. It was smoked at 114 mph. The Volpe double that scored Judge (and Jazz Chisolm Jr., who walked) was on an 0-1 fastball. It had an exit velocity of 103 mph. The final out of the inning was hit by Austin Wells, who launched a fastball almost in exactly the same spot as the Volpe double that Kyle Isbel laid out for in center. That one was clocked at 104 mph.

To compound the pain, those four plate appearances noted in the paragraph above were with two outs in the inning. Bubic needed to make one good pitch to get that third and final out and he just couldn’t make it happen.

Bubic adjusted in the fourth and fifth innings, keeping his pitches lower for the most part and definitely out of that nitro zone he was living in in the third. The Yankees touched him for another run in the fourth though and again, all the baserunners came with two outs. The sequence went single, single, double. All the damage was done in the span of six pitches. The double came off the bat of Cody Bellinger and was on an 0-2 pitch. None of those hits were smashed like in the third, but they were all perfectly placed, including Bellinger’s double that went right over the first base bag.

Look, I have nothing against the man who is clearly one of the better players in the game, but if I never see Aaron Judge face Royals pitching in Yankee Stadium again, I’ll be good with that. His home run against John Schreiber in the seventh provided that insurmountable one-run lead. If I never see a game in Yankee Stadium again, I’ll likewise be good with that.

Sigh.

Central Issues

Tigers 1, Brewers 5

Oliver Dunn became the first Brewer to bring the torpedo bat to the plate and he used it for a squeeze bunt. Sure. That was Milwaukee’s first run. They plated four more on the back of three home runs, one each from Christian Yellich, Rhys Hoskins and Sal Frelick. Jose Quintana and four relievers combined to secure the win. The Brewers took two of three from the Tigers.

Mets 3, Twins 4

Is there life in Minnesota? The Twins blew a three-run lead in the eighth thanks to RBI doubles from Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker that tied the game. You’d think these Twins would just roll over, but no! Cole Sands walked Alonso to start the 10th, but got Winker to roll into a double play. In the bottom of the tenth, Ty France singled home their Manfred Man to secure the game and the series for Minnesota.

Guardians 1, Orioles 9

Jackson Holliday crushed a grand slam in the second against Gavin Williams. The O’s tacked on four more runs against Triston McKinzie in the eighth. Easy-peasy. McKenzie now sports an 11.12 ERA covering four relief appearances.

Athletics 3, White Sox 1

The Sox jumped to an early lead on the back of a Brooks Baldwin home run in the third. In the sixth, JJ Bleday singled home a run to tie it. After a walk to Miguel Andujar, Gio Urshela untied the game with a triple. The Sox had their chances, loading the bases in the seventh but Luis Robert Jr. grounded out. Closer Mason Miller touched 102 mph on the gun as he punched out the side in the ninth to secure his fifth save.

As you’ll see in the next section, this upcoming series is kind of important. Yes, important.

Up Next

April 17 at DET - RHP Michael Lorenzen (1-2, 3.71) vs. RHP Reese Olson (1-1, 6.00) at 5:40 p.m.
April 18 at DET - LHP Cole Ragans (1-0, 2.28) vs. RHP Jackson Jobe (1-0, 3.00) at 5:40 p.m.
April 19 at DET - RHP Seth Lugo (1-2, 3.86) vs. RHP Casey Mize (2-1, 2.60) at 12:10 p.m.
April 20 at DET - RHP Michael Wacha (0-3, 4.35) vs. LHP Tarik Skubal (2-2, 2.66) at 12:40 p.m.

The Royals visit Detroit and face the Tigers for the first time this season. Is this a pivotal April series? Sort of feels like it. The Tigers have the starting pitching to match the Royals which makes Kansas City’s current offensive malaise feel even more perilous.

Thursday’s game is on FS1 in addition to the usual broadcasting outlets.