Pitch clocked

Too many pitches from the Royals. One dangerous pitch from the Guardians. Cleveland serves notice as they take the first series of the season.

Even a slog of a baseball game—and Sunday’s mantinee between the Guardians and the Royals was very much a slog—can have its moments.

In the case of the 6-2 loss for the Royals, moment number one came in the bottom of the eighth inning. After the bats had been held in check all day, first by starter Tanner Bibee and then by a few Guardian relievers, a rally of sorts was kicked up late.

Down 6-0 to open the frame, Dairon Blanco, pinch hitting for Kyle Isbel, reached on an error. That was followed by back-to-back singles from Jonathan India and Bobby Witt Jr., to load the bases. Vinnie Pasquantino saw four pitches nowhere near the zone, and boom! The Royals had their first run of the day with Salvador Perez due up.

This was where Cleveland manager Steven Vogt made the move for Hunter Gaddis out of the bullpen. Gaddis is a fastball/slider guy and we all know how Perez can fish against those sliders. And a-fishing did he go. Michael Massey likewise went down swinging on a slider, and at that point, the rally was on fumes.

Wait! Hunter Renfroe worked a five-pitch walk to plate another run. Maikel Garcia then hit a sharp grounder between first and second that was nabbed by first baseman Carlos Santana. There was no way he was going to beat Garcia to first and it appeared Gaddis broke late off the mound. Alas, the pitcher won the footrace by the slimmest of margins. The inning and the threat were extinguished.

The other moment of interest came with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with India up against Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase. On an 0-1 pitch, Clase came high and tight with a 97 mph fastball.

The next pitch was even higher and tighter, a cutter at 98 mph that caught India on the helmet, close to the brim.

An outrageously dangerous pitch and one that was entirely unnecessary given the situation. I mean, throwing at the head is never necessary, but I’m just left wondering the intent between two consecutive pitches in that location with two outs in the ninth inning with Clase’s team possessing a four run lead. The Royals were wondering the same thing.

From Anne Rogers:

“I’m still kind of collecting my thoughts on it,” designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino said. “But [Clase] threw a pitch that he doesn’t ever throw before, which was a four-seam fastball. His first one of the year. And then the next pitch, trying to come back up and in. You got to get it. Trying to let a pitch ride. It didn’t.”

India was pissed. Manager Matt Quatraro was out of the dugout like Usain Bolt to grab his leadoff hitter. Home plate umpire Gabe Morales stared out at Clase, and for a moment, I thought he was going to run the pitcher.

Clase wasn’t sharp in his first appearance back on Opening Day, but he never drifted that far and in to the right-handed batters he faced. One pitch in that location, it happens. But two in a row?

After the game, Clase texted Salvador Perez to let him know there was no intent behind the pitch and that it slipped out of his hands.

It should be noted that the Guardians also hit Pasquantino with a pitch on Sunday that was likewise up and in. They also threw tight to Witt all series. We’ll see if there is any kind of carryover. The two teams meet again in two weeks in Cleveland.

As for India, the Royals said they didn’t believe India suffered a concussion and was being evaluated. We’ll learn more on Monday morning as the Royals have a day game in Milwaukee.

The story of Michael Wacha’s afternoon was written in the top of the second inning. The frame opened with India coming in on an opposite field line drive off the bat of Santana before retreating and watching the ball go over his head for a double. It was the kind of play you see from a guy who, until this week, had never played a major league inning in left field. Of course, the proper move on a line drive to the outfield is to freeze for a beat before deciding whether to go in or move back. The difficulty on this play was compounded by the fact that it was a drive to the opposite field. That ball had a wicked spin that would be difficult for even a seasoned left fielder to pick up.

Wacha walked the next batter to put runners at first and second, but recorded his first out. The problem was, to this point he needed 40 pitches to get to that point in the game. To compound the pitch count issues, the next batter, Bo Naylor, had this plate appearance:

Given the way the afternoon was unfolding, this wasn’t going to wreck his outing. The pitch count was already far too high. It didn’t help that after the Naylor battle, he needed 10 more pitches to get out of the inning, making 34 in total that frame.

In the four innings that Wacha was in the game, he made 87 pitches. Of those, a whopping 21 were fouled off. Guardian hitters weren’t expanding the zone any more than the zone is usually expanded against Wacha. What they were doing was making plenty of contact on pitches out of the zone. For the afternoon, Cleveland hitters made contact on 82 percent of the swings they took on pitches outside of the strike zone. Last season, hitters averaged a 61 percent out-of-the-zone contact rate against Wacha.

That made for a long afternoon for the Royals’ number three starter.

Meanwhile, Wacha’s counterpart, Tanner Bibee, was cruising. Vinnie Pasquantino hit a freak triple in the first, where right fielder Nolan Jones went through the fence almost Bump Bailey style. (Jones was a bit stunned but stayed in the game.) Mark that down as something we’ve never seen before. At any rate, after that hit from Pasquantino, the only other knock for the Royals against Bibee came when left fielder Steven Kwan lost a Hunter Renfroe fly ball in the sun.

Bibee allowed only four hard-hit balls on the day.

Kind of difficult to get a rally going when you can’t make regular solid contact.

Wacha’s pitch mix on Sunday was interesting. This is how frequently he threw his six pitches last season:

Changeup - 32%
Four-seam - 24%
Sinker - 15%
Cutter - 11%
Slider - 9%
Curve - 8%

This is how Baseball Savant characterized his afternoon:

Four-seam - 47%
Changeup - 33%
Curve - 7%
Cutter - 5%
Slider - 5%
Sinker - 3%

He basically was throwing two pitches with his change and four-seamer accounting for 80 percent of all his offerings. Plus, while he was throwing his change as frequently as we saw last year, he really leaned on his four-seamer at the expense of those other pitches.

While Wacha was touched for just a single run, the bullpen was not so fortunate. Sam Long, Chris Stratton and John Schreiber all surrendered home runs, which ultimately put the game out of reach.

The entire series was underwhelming for the Royals from the standpoint of starting pitching. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Wacha provided only 14 innings of work, striking out nine and walking nine. They allowed seven runs which, somehow, doesn’t seem like a lot given the amount of traffic on the bases.

The Royals take a quick three-game road trip to Milwaukee for the Brewers’ home opener. Here are the probable starters.

March 31 at MIL - LHP Kris Bubic vs. RHP Elvin Rodríguez - 1:10 p.m
April 1 at MIL - RHP Michael Lorenzen vs. TBA - 6:40 p.m.
April 2 at MIL - LHP Cole Ragans (0-0, 5.40) vs. RHP Freddy Peralta (0-1, 3.60) - 12:10 p.m.

The Brewers were swept in their season-opening series against the Yankees and their “torpedo” bats. They were outscored 36-14.