Down to the wire

The Royals keep things close with Seth Lugo and battle back behind a clutch hit from Paul DeJong, but the Astros have the last word.

We aren’t even in September and this brand of baseball is tense, taut and exhausting.

The Royals were held without a hit for seven-plus innings, down 2-0 in the ninth inning, tied it up on a blast from Paul DeJong and then were walked off in the bottom of the frame on a two-out Jose Altuve double. I’m worn out just typing that sentence.

The double from Altuve bounced off the wall in front of the Crawford Boxes (I’ll have a lot more to say about those boxes later on). With two outs, Jake Meyers who singled and was on first, was running on contact. By the time MJ Melendez had a handle on the ball, Meyers was around third. Ballgame.

The double had an xBA of just .070. A fitting conclusion to a game that was a bit unique when it came to how most of the runs were scored.

How about some Saturday bonus content? Let’s roll.

Yes, the Royals are going to miss Vinnie Pasquantino in the lineup. No, I wouldn’t read anything into the fact that his first game out coincided with the Royals being no-hit for seven-plus innings. Sometimes you have to give the opposing starting pitcher a little credit. Framber Valdez flat shoved. He had everything working, especially that whippy curve that he spins. He recorded nine swings and misses on it. It was devastating.

The Valdez cambio isn’t too shabby, either. I have to admit, I’m kind of smitten with his pitch chart for that offering.

He threw 19 changeups and not one of them was put in play. Five of the six he put squarely in the zone were fouled off. The ones down and away were swung at and missed. Damn.

And then to top it off, when the Royals did put the ball in play, it was frequently on the ground. Valdez had nine ground ball outs, one of which went for a double play, erasing a rare Royals baserunner. Valdez left the game after seven innings where he didn’t surrender a hit and walked just three batters.

Sometimes, you just have to tip your cap to the other team’s starting pitcher.

While you’re at it, tip your cap to Seth Lugo because that dude pretty much matched Valdez on Friday. Lugo threw nine different pitches according to Statcast and dare I say, every single one of those offerings was on point. Really, I don’t even know how to break down what Lugo does because it’s so cerebral, so intricate, that each outing feels like it could be distilled into an entire book. He’s such a pleasure to watch.

Since throwing his complete game shutout in his first outing after the All-Star Game, Lugo has been inconsistent.

He’s had his good starts and he’s had a couple of stinkers. If he’s been alternating (for the most part) between the good and the bad, he was due for a sharp outing on Friday. He certainly delivered, going seven innings, striking out nine.

Lugo allowed one run. It was a joke…A home run into the front row of the Crawford Boxes in left field. Off the bat of Ben Gamel, it traveled 354 feet. I love Baseball Savant.

Yep. Minute Maid Park is the only yard in the majors where that flyball is a home run. To be fair, it did have an xBA of .700.

Another reason I love Savant is data like this…A scatterplot of baseballs hit at 104 MPH off the bat with a launch angle of 21 degrees.

It’s important to remember that exit velocity and launch angle do not yield consistent distances. Other factors are in play. But it is useful to see that while a number of balls hit like the one Gamel clubbed do leave the yard, most of them go for two bases.

I realize I’m getting a bit into the weeds here, but damn I really dislike Minute Maid Park. They got rid of that trick hill in center field, but those Crawford Boxes are like the short porch at Yankee Stadium. I just don’t like it. I digress…Lugo was fantastic and I would go as far as to say he didn’t make a single mistake on the night.

With the game at 1-0 when Lugo exited after seven, Matt Quatraro turned to Carlos Hernández as the first man out of the bullpen. Yeah…I’m not sold on that strategy. I just don’t trust Hernández to keep the game close. He only gave up a single run, allowing a single, a double and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jeremy Peña, but still…

We’ve officially entered the portion of the season where every walk to the mound by Quatraro is under the microscope. I think I would’ve preferred to have seen Sam Long in that situation. Or James McArthur, who came on in the ninth. Dunno. This bullpen remains a Rubiks Cube that is nearly impossible for the manager to solve.

That run allowed by Hernández changed the game just enough.

Down 2-0 in the ninth, the Astros turned to their closer Josh Hader. Hader slammed the door shut on the Royals the night before. He gave up hard contact on an 0-2 sinker to Bobby Witt Jr. who drove a ground ball that kicked up and off the glove of Peña at short. (Another Astros error at shortstop? Perfection.) After Salvador Perez struck out for the first out of the inning, newcomer Paul DeJong stepped in to offer a reprieve.

That’s DeJong’s sixth home run since joining the team at the end of last month. He continues to amaze.

Oh! Since I slammed on the Crawford Boxes when Gamel hit his home run, I have to be fair.

A little better, I guess. Still a joke of a ballpark.

I will say that was a nice piece of hitting from DeJong to get that low slider from Hader that was running away from him, up in the air. Bonus that it traveled just far enough to escape.

When DeJong joined the Royals from the White Sox at the trade deadline, I figured he’d be good for a handful of home runs over two months of the season but didn’t really expect much. Except he’s been kind of clutch of late and has really helped this lineup. He’s played a solid third base as well. He has just surprised me with how he’s performed since the trade, hitting .284/.355/.597 with an OPS+ of 159. Now he just has to keep it up for another month and hopefully a little more.

By now you’ve heard the injury news on Vinnie Pasquantino. It’s a broken thumb that will sideline him for six to eight weeks. He will definitely be on the sidelines for the rest of the regular season. He will likely miss all of October as well.

Just a crushing blow to the team and to Pasquantino. Selfishly, I’m disappointed he will miss out on hitting 100 RBI and that the Royals won’t have three players hitting the century mark. He’s also a fun hitter to watch and an easy guy to pull for. And he’s a leader in that clubhouse. It’s the second year in a row that his season has been cut short by injury, so I’m sure he’s disappointed. Obviously, it’s made even more difficult given that the Royals are in contention this year.

His immediate replacement on the roster is Nick Loftin. I had speculate on Loftin in the comments to yesterday’s post because he’s hit relatively well in Omaha, has had some exposure to the majors the last couple of seasons and has played just a little bit of first base. He was in the lineup as the designated hitter on Friday and went 0-4 with a strikeout.

Quatraro had found such a balance moving Pasquantino around as the first baseman or designated hitter along with Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin. I’m betting that they will use Loftin in a similar type of rotation, working him in at first on days when Fermin is off behind the plate where Perez is back as the catcher. He will DH from time to time to keep his bat fresh.

We will find out on Saturday whether or not the Royals made a waiver claim as a number of teams out of contention have been making moves at the end of the week to clear roster space and salary. Players placed on waivers are not generally publicized although MLB Trade Rumors reports that Tommy Pham, Travis Jankowski and Robbie Grossman are all currently on waivers, with Pham designated for assignment. A player has to be on the roster by August 31 to be eligible for postseason play.

There’s not much news on Lucas Erceg, who was injured on the same play as Pasquantino. Joel Goldberg reported he was experiencing some swelling and soreness on his pitching hand but will not, as of yet, go on the IL. I’m not sure no news is good news. We will have to wait until he’s actually in a game to know for sure how this turns out. I expect we will see by Monday.

Oh! Rosters expand on Sunday, so the Royals will be able to add a couple more players to help with the rotation. And Hunter Renfroe is expected to come off the IL soon and could be ready to go early in the next homestand.

As brilliant as the opening of the week was for the Royals when they swept the doubleheader in Cleveland and had all of their fellow postseason contenders lose, Friday was the polar opposite.

Cleveland blew an early 4-0 lead and then rallied for four more runs in the fifth to hold off the Pirates by a 10-8 scoreline. The Twins scored a run on a double and a Carlos Santana single then scored another with a sacrifice bunt followed by a sacrifice fly. Two runs were enough in their 2-0 defeat of the Blue Jays. The Red Sox blew a 3-0 lead in the late innings but plated three more in their half of the 10th to push past the Tigers, 7-5.

Tied for first on Tuesday, the Royals are now 2.5 games back in the Central. The Twins have stumbled over the last 10, but remain within striking distance for second which also impacts the Wild Card race.