Salvage job

The Royals survive to claw one back against the Tigers in extra innings.

Going 2-8 on a road trip sure doesn’t sound ideal. It certainly beats going 1-9.

That’s how close the Royals were to letting another one get away. The just-completed road trip was certainly a disaster, no matter how you look at it. Yet had they lost this one, after touching reigning AL Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal for a pair of early runs and chasing him from the game after only five innings, it would have been another painful cut in a week-plus full of them.

It was a bad road trip that bordered on disaster. The offense is unproductive and the pitching can’t carry the load. Still, a win is a win and the Royals needed that one. Badly. And now the schedule gets a tad easier.

Exhale. For a moment.

There was a bit of a wrinkle to the lineup as the Royals welcomed back Mark Canha from the injured list. The right-handed hitter was inserted into the cleanup spot against the southpaw Tarik Skubal. That pushed Salvador Perez up to the third spot. Manager Matt Quatraro dropped the slumping left-handed hitting Vinnie Pasquantino down to seventh in the order. The lineup was stacked with right-handers one through six.

It was a machination that paid immediate dividends.

After Skubal recorded the first out in the second inning, the Royals strung together three consecutive singles. They came off the bats of the five, six and seven hitters, spots in the lineup that have been blacker than the blackest of holes this first month of the season. Maikel Garcia blistered a line drive to right. Hunter Renfroe looped one the same way. There might have been a play on Garcia, hustling from first to third, but Javy Baéz couldn’t field the throw cleanly, and Renfroe moved up 90 feet.

Runners at second and third with one out…One of those situations where you could already feel your heart begin to break.

Except this time, Vinnie Pasquantino came through with a single on a 2-2 slider off the plate into center field. It was, dare I say, an exquisite piece of hitting, just putting the bat on the ball and flicking a run-scoring single at 95 mph off the bat.

Pasquantino was in extreme protect mode because he had seen four pitches to that point, only one of which maybe tickled the bottom of the zone, yet was even at 2-2 in the count.

Tough to hit against a Cy Young award winner and an umpire with an elastic strike zone.

After Freddy Fermin struck out, Drew Waters came through with a soft single to center to plate the second run of the inning. Waters hasn’t shown much at all in his latest turn in the majors, to the point where he may find himself back on I-29 if he doesn’t find another gear shortly. Coming through in a situation like that will most certainly help his case.

The top of the second inning was also notable for the fact that the Royals forced Skubal to throw 27 pitches. That was on the heels of an incredibly efficient first where the lefty needed only seven pitches to retire the first three batters he faced on the afternoon.

The Royals didn’t score in the third, but thanks to Canha's single and a Garcia walk, along with competitive at bats from Witt, Perez and, yes, Renfroe, they were able to push Skubal’s pitch count to 58 pitches.

In the fourth inning, the Royals worked him for 16 more pitches. In the fifth, Skubal threw 17, and that was while being bailed out on a Witt caught stealing to end the inning.

After those five innings, Skubal was at 91 pitches. While the Royals didn’t score off the lefty after the second and only had one base runner total in the sixth and seventh innings, it was still momentous to get Skubal out of the game after five. It’s not often we can give the Royals lineup credit when it comes to taxing a pitcher. And it’s not something I would’ve thought could happen given the way the offense has performed over the last couple of weeks. But give the guys credit… they didn’t press and took a steady, patient approach to the plate. It paid off.

Is it my bias, or were the Tigers intent on challenging the arm of Renfroe in right? It just seemed like their runners turned the dial on the aggressive meter a few clicks when the ball was hit his direction. They were intent on taking the extra base to the point where they were specifically challenging his arm.

If this was the case, the scouting reports are out on Renfroe. According to data at Baseball Savant, runners are attempting to advance on balls hit to Refroe 48 percent of the time, which is the second-highest among outfielders. His arm rates as -2 Fielding Runs, which is tied with Victor Robles in Seattle for the worst in the majors.

Because these are the offensively challenged Royals, nothing comes easy. Not even a win that would snap a six-game losing streak.

Michael Wacha, generally sharp on the afternoon, found a rough patch in the fifth. After back-to-back singles to lead off the inning, putting runners on first and third, Wacha got Baéz swinging on a nifty curve and then followed that by inducing a pop-up from Gleyber Torres. For a moment, it seemed Wacha would escape unscathed, but Kerry Carpenter and Zach McKinstry both singled on tasty pitches to drive in two runs to tie the game.

The Tigers broke the tie in the seventh as they strung together three singles against Daniel Lynch IV. It was the first run Lynch surrendered this year and his first in 31 innings. That’s tied for the fourth-longest scoreless inning streak in franchise history.

Zack Greinke - 38 innings
Kevin Appier - 33 innings
Wade Davis - 31.2 innings
Bret Saberhagen - 31 innings
Kelvin Herrera - 31 innings
Daniel Lynch IV - 31 innings

That’s some extremely solid company.

And a hat tip to Carlos Estévez for cruising through a ninth inning on just seven pitches so he could go in the tenth when the Royals took the lead. He should get credit for saving his own win! He required a few more pitches in the tenth and I was worried he was starting to get a bit fatigued when he faced off against Dillon Dingler with two outs, falling behind 3-0. But Estévez battled back and got him on a pop up to second.

Ballgame. Victory. Party time.

Canha had a good day back in the lineup. Hitting cleanup, he singled twice and drove home the tying run in the eighth after Witt reached on a throwing error. It was the kind of manufactured run the Royals have been missing this month. Hell, they’ve been missing all kinds of runs. What I would give for a three-run home run. Still, a softly hit single up the middle with Witt on second is enough for now. Small steps.

While I’m a noted hater of the Manfred Man (the free runner at second base in extra innings), in the interest of full disclosure, I welcomed its presence on Sunday. How many times do the Royals get a runner on second with nobody out?

I did enjoy the fact that the Royals scored their Manfred Man with a pair of productive outs. India grounded sharply to second, which got Waters to third. Then Witt cashed him in on a sacrifice fly.

We cannot be choosy in how the Royals score their runs.

I’ll let Matt Quatraro have the last word:

“Relief is a good word. Excitement is a good word. I mean, we know we’re going to go through some tough stretches. This was a tough road trip against good teams. We feel like we’re a good team. We’re going to play better than we’ve played this week, that’s for sure.”

Central Issues

Twins 2, Atlanta 6

Atlanta finishes off a three-game sweep. As bad as things have been for the Royals, it could be worse. You could be a Twins fan. They’re not even trying to win games.

White Sox 8, Red Sox 4

Matt Thaiss clubbed a two-run home run in the first to give Chicago the early lead, but Boston answered immediately with a three-run Wilyer Abreu homer in the bottom of the frame. The White Sox took advantage of some ineffective relief pitching to rally in the seventh to take the lead they would not surrender. The coolest moment in this game was when Liam Hendriks took the mound for Boston, his first outing since June of 2023. He’s been sidelined since then as he underwent Tommy John surgery. Prior to that, he was in treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It’s been quite a journey. This was just his sixth appearance on a big league mound since 2022.

Guardians 5, Pirates 4, 10 innings

Steven Kwan and Kyle Manzardo both hit two-run home runs for Cleveland to stake the Guardians to a 4-1 lead entering the ninth inning. Enmanuel Clase walked the leadoff man, then gave up back-to-back doubles to Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier. Ke’Bryan Hayes tied the game with a single. Clase isn’t right. The Guardians followed the Royals script for their half of the 10th, bringing home their Manfred Man on the back of a pair of productive outs. Cleveland swept the three-game series.

The Royals have certainly put themselves in a hole. The good news is, they have five months to figure out if they can get out. They next face Detroit after Memorial Day at the end of May. Cleveland isn’t on the schedule until after the All-Star break.

Up Next

The Royals are off on Monday. We all can use the break. They open a six-game homestand on Tuesday with the Colorado Rockies up first, followed by the Houston Astros.

April 22 vs. COL - RHP Ryan Feltner (0-1, 4.82) vs. LHP Kris Bubic (2-1, 1.88) at 6:40 p.m
April 23 vs. COL - RHP Germán Marquez (0-3, 8.27) vs. RHP Michael Lorenzen (1-3, 4.57) at 6:40 p.m.
April 24 vs. COL - RHP Chase Dollander (1-2, 7.36) vs. LHP Cole Ragans (1-1, 3.58) at 1:10 p.m.

If the Royals bats can’t get going against the Rockies…