Gnar start! Duffy dominates

The offense is still searching for signs of life, but Danny Duffy spins a gem against the Angels.

How do you describe what happened for the final out of the Royals 3-2 victory over the Angels? How do you do it justice? What in the world happened?

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So let’s try…

With the bases juiced and two outs, Greg Holland spins a slider about 58 feet. Salvador Perez blocks the ball and it deflects directly into the groin of the batter Jared Walsh. Perez picks up the ball—clarification, the baseball—and fires to third to catch the runner, David Fletcher, who broke just a little too far down the line on the deflection. A perfect throw for the final out and the Royals claim the 3-2 victory.

Visual evidence of the absurd previous paragraph necessary.

I’m not sure you can tell just how nutty this whole play was. I’ve never seen a game end like that before. Hell, I’ve never seen that sequence before, no matter the situation. And no matter that in his postgame interview Holland claimed he and Perez planned out that sequence perfectly (with tongue planted firmly in cheek), there’s absolutely no way they could repeat that if they tried. It’s true…Watch a ballgame and you’re guaranteed to see something you’ve never witnessed before.

The Royals are now 5-4 and that’s with averaging 2.6 runs per game over their last seven. Are the Royals good? The jury is still most definitely out on that. Are the Royals lucky? I don’t think there’s any doubt. But they’ll take a win however they can get it. You have to steal some here and there over the course of 162 games.

It helps when the cause is helped by some dominant starting pitching…

Duffy lets it eat

When you open the Baseball Savant game feed page after five innings have been played, you don’t expect to see this.

Sure, Duffy could have the top pitch velocity in the early innings of a game, but that’s usually depending on his starting counterpart. That’s not the point. The point is more of a question or just flat disbelief: Duffy was throwing that fast?

Seriously. That kind of smoke from Duffy has not been seen around these parts (or any parts for that matter) for years. According to Baseball Savant, since returning full-time to the rotation in 2017, Duffy had thrown exactly two pitches faster than 97 mph before Tuesday’s start. That was in a start against the Twins in July of 2018. He matched that in the first inning against the Angels.

Even as a starter, Duffy has always been a max effort kind of guy in that he goes out and always drains the tank in his starts. It doesn’t necessarily manifest itself in the fastball velocity but his normal pitch velocity chart has a bit of fade the longer he’s in the game. He had that on Tuesday but it was the normal decline we see from the early innings to the later ones. Not a sharp one I was expecting when he came out in the top of the first throwing heat.

He closed out his evening on pitch 100: a 93.8 mph four-seamer for a swinging strike three. High cheese, my friends.

It was a tour de force from the veteran lefty. By the time the smoke cleared, he threw 48 fastballs with an average velocity of 94.7 mph, up 2.5 mph from his average last year. The spin rate was up too, giving it a bit of a rise and making it oh-so-irresistible to hitters before exploding out up and out of the zone. He ended his evening with 26 swings on the four-seamer with 14 fouls and five whiffs. Here are the swings on the fastball where the ball wasn’t put in play.

The Angels literally couldn’t handle the heat. They put seven fastballs in play, but the average exit velocity on those was just 85.9.

The slider was working as well. Yeah, that was the pitch Shohei Ohtani crushed in the fifth, but that’s going to happen. Ohtani is just an amazing player, worth the price of admission. But back to the man of the day…Duffy threw 27 sliders and recorded four swings and misses on the pitch. Like the fastball, both the velocity and spin rate were both evelated on the pitch from his averages last year. The result was a little more horizontal break than we’ve seen in the past. Witness Duffy locking up Mike Trout for a strikeout in the third.

Duffy went to the change only 12 times, but did get three swings and misses on the pitch. Including this beaut.

Duffy has now gone six in both his starts, the only Royals’ starter to go that deep into a game. He’s been a savior of the bullpen for manager Mike Matheny. Just an amazing start from the veteran who many (including myself) ticketed for the bullpen at some point this year. He’s pitching with a plan and with a purpose. The results have been fantastic. Mike Matheny himself said it was the best performance he’d ever seen from Duffy. The manager has only been around the organization for two-plus years but I’ll agree…This was definitely the best we’ve seen the lefty look in a long, long time.

Productive outs

The Royals offense, scuffling for the last week-plus, did just enough to secure the win. The first two runs came courtesy of Carlos Santana—a sacrifice fly in the first and a ground out in the third. Santana is the third Royal since 2012 to tally two RBI without the benefit of a hit or a walk. The list of Royals who have done this since the turn of the century is quite a rogues gallery.

The third run was about as basic as it gets. A Whit Merrifield single, a steal and a two-out single from Perez gets it done.

Goodness. This game just kind of oozed 2014 feelings, didn’t it?

Let’s give another tip of the cap to Matheny here who recently flipped Perez and Santana in the order. It makes sense not only from a lefty-righty alternatate with the switch-hitting Santana sandwiched between the right-handed hitting Perez and Jorge Soler, but it seems to have jump-started Perez’s season. At least on this homestand.

That’s important because the only Royals who have been hitting with any kind of consistency in the early going has been Merrifield (203 OPS+) and Michael A. Taylor (136 OPS+). Perez is the only other Royal batter who has provided above-average production at 156 OPS+. As noted earlier in the article, the Royals are averaging just 2.6 runs per game over their last seven. Somehow they are 3-4 in that stretch.

It’s a good win, but the offense has to start firing if the Royals are going to push through April with a record close to—or above—.500.

Mike Trout wears a golden sombrero

Mike Trout is the best player in baseball. (Maybe. I’ve been watching Ohtani the last couple of nights.) Whatever. The dude is great. He’s whiffed four times in a game just six times in his career. He hasn’t done it since September of 2017.

He did it on Tuesday.

• Duffy got him swinging on a slider down below the knees in the third. (As seen in one of the gifs above.)

• Duffy got him on a filthy 0-2 slider on the bottom of the zone in the fifth.

• Jake Brentz showed four fastballs up at about 96 mph before breaking off a slider down and out of the zone on a 3-2 pitch in the seventh.

• Greg Holland got him to chase a 2-2 slider off the outer edge for a crucial out in the ninth.

Four whiffs on sliders. The golden sombrero. ¡Brillante!

Transaction action

Ahead of the game on Tuesday the Royals announced a flurry of roster moves. They selected the contract of Ervin Santana and recalled Tyler Zuber. In corresponding transactions they optioned Ryan McBroom to the alternate site and placed Josh Staumont on the IL.

The Royals are now carrying 14 pitchers on their active roster which is just borderline insane. That gives them a backup catcher (Cam Gallagher), a speed merchant (Jarrod Dyson) and a lefty-mashing utility infielder (Hanser Alberto) on the bench. But with a starting rotation that has averaged four innings per start, the Royals bullpen is suddenly thin. You can’t start Duffy every game.

The way the 40-man is built, it’s difficult to justify McBroom on the active roster. He’s had success as a pinch-hitter, but there just isn’t opportunity to use him on a consistent basis.

Central issues

• Boston 4, Minnesota 2

Twins drop to 1-4 at Target Field to open their 2021 home account.

• Cleveland 2, Chicago 0 — 10 innings

Aces Bieber and Giolito fulfill the destiny of a pitchers duel as Cleveland gets the edge in extras.

• Detroit 8, Houston 2

Tigers blast five dingers, including another from Rule 5 sensation Akil Baddoo.

Up next

Brad Keller tries to get right. Maybe he can channel an inner Duffy or something.

Afternoon baseball at The K with first pitch slated at 1:10.