Out of reach

The Royals can't sustain an offensive spark.

They say to live newsletter life without regrets, but I knew I’d rue not writing about the win on Tuesday. Victories for the Royals don’t happen all that often these days. Same for offensive explosions, even of the modest variety. Six runs!

Stupid West Coast baseball.

So as I settled in front of the Bally/FanDuel/WagerYourLifeSavingsWithThisPromoCode Kansas City stream on Wednesday, prepared to scribble down some thoughts from that evening’s tilt, it felt as if the result was somewhat preordained.

Please accept my apologies.

It was another decent start, though, as the Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first. As we know around these parts, a single run is difficult to hold up through nine innings. The Mariners proved that point, tagging the Royals bullpen for three in the later innings. The boys got one back in the eighth, but that was it.

Bobby Witt Jr. reached base four times with a couple of singles and a pair of walks. He stole a base. He scored twice. He was on deck at the end of the game as the Royals lost, 3-2.

The top five hitters of the Royals lineup are inspiring at least a little confidence these days. A little. Spots two through five were responsible for both runs, with Witt ignighting the spark both times, and with Salvador Perez driving him home twice.

Otherwise, it was the same old offensive story. Spots six through nine went a combined 1-14. Freddy Fermin, hitting eighth, reached twice, which was good. Once on a single and another time on a walk. Kyle Isbel laid down another sacrifice. And that was their total offensive contribution. Jonathan India at the top of the order had a rough game, going 0-5 with three strikeouts, including the one to bring down the curtain on the game.

I did like how the lineup battled against starter Logan Gilbert. He needed 65 pitches to get through three innings. Gilbert hasn’t been especially sharp since returning from the IL with a flexor strain in his forearm. On Wednesday, the Royals worked some long counts, fouling off 21 pitches total. Yet apart from the first inning, Gilbert was able to navigate the Royals lineup without enduring a lot of stress. The only other baserunners he allowed after the first were walks to Witt. Gilbert left with two outs in the fifth, having thrown 95 pitches.

I’ll always take my chances against a bullpen, especially when a team can get in there early, as the Royals did. On Wednesday, the Mariners relievers combined for 4.1 innings and seven strikeouts. Only Matt Brash hit any kind of a speedbump, allowing three singles and a run in his turn. They did just enough.

Noah Cameron had the start for the Royals on Wednesday and looked strong through his first four innings, limiting the Mariners to two hits while striking out four. He wobbled a bit in the fifth, loading the bases on the back of two singles and a walk. Cameron left with two outs as the Seattle lineup had flipped over a third time and the dangerous Julio Rodríguez up.

More balls put in play against Cameron left the bat at under 80 mph—five—than over 95 mph—three. That’s a lot of non-threatening contact. The kind that helps a pitcher keep runs off the board.

Perhaps what helped Cameron was the fact he really mixed up his pitches. Normally, he leans four-seamer, changeup and slider as his top three offerings. On Wednesday in Seattle, his three most frequent pitches was his slider, four-seamer and curve, in that order. He was really filling the zone with that slider, working it up and down.

Even though it was his fourth choice, Cameron’s changeup was nasty as usual. He’s getting a whiff on a third of all swings against the pitch this season. Against the Mariners, they missed on five of their eight swings against the change, a whiff rate of 63 percent.

I like how the gameplan for Cameron was to mix up his offerings from his normal approach. It’s smart pitching.

The Mariners took the lead in the seventh. Reliever Angel Zerpa served up a leadoff double to the number eight hitter, Ben Williamson. The next batter, Cole Young, hit a comebacker. It froze Williamson off second. Zerpa turned to throw…and inexplicably hesitated.

That moment of indecision was costly. Instead of gunning down a runner in scoring position and getting the first out of the inning, the Mariners had runners on first and second with no outs with the top of the order coming up. That’s not any way to play the game when it’s tied up late.

J.P. Crawford sacrificed the runners up 90 feet. With the infield in, Rodríguez smashed a grounder that deflected off the glove of third baseman Maikel Garcia. That plated the first run. The second came across when that man, Randy Arozarena, lofted a sacrifice fly.

That gave the Royals six outs to score two runs to tie, a most monumental task. Ballgame.

From June 1 to June 29, Arozarena hit one home run.

In the first three games of the series against the Royals, he’s left the yard four times.

Seattle has scored 12 runs in the three games so far. Arozarena had driven home seven of them.

Meanwhile, Jac Caglianone has one hit in his last 41 at bats.

He flew out to left in the first inning to end the inning with runners on first and third. He then struck out three consecutive times. The final whiff came with one out with runners on first and second and the Royals down a run in the eighth.

As noted above, there’s quite a falloff from the modest production the Royals are getting in the top half of their batting order to the lower part. Twice on Wednesday, Caglianone was up with runners in scoring position. Both times it was after the Royals had scored a run and were threatening for a larger inning. You already know what happened.

I’m not sure what the Royals are accomplishing by keeping him in the majors.

The All-Star Game starters were announced on Wednesday and Bobby Witt Jr. lost the final vote at shortstop to Sacramento’s Jacob Wilson. It’s the second consecutive year that Witt has lost the final vote. He missed out as a starter last year to Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles.

Wilson is second in the AL with a .339 batting average and is ninth in OBP with a .380 mark. Nice numbers, to be sure. Though Witt is a better all-around player so far this season. Alas. I’m sure he’ll make the team as a reserve.