The boys are back

The Royals chase away those pesky first inning blues and those damn Yankees at the same time, closing out a difficult and trying homestand as winners.

The Royals we’ve been missing all week, those resilient, never-say-die Royals, finally showed up in the ninth inning on Thursday afternoon. Better late than never. Maikel Garcia delivered with a two-out double down the left field line to bring home two runs in the bottom of the ninth to secure a much-needed walk-off 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees.

Staring down a fifth consecutive loss and an extremely underwhelming 2-5 homestand, the Royals head out of town as winners. That it came against the Yankees, a team that pretty much had their way with the Royals all series, made the victory that much sweeter. A 3-4 week at The K against a pair of first-place teams doesn’t seem so bad.

Drew Waters got things started in the ninth on a little dribbler that ended up in a no-man’s land down the first base line. Does first baseman Anthony Rizzo charge for the ball? Does reliever Clay Holmes head for the bag or does he make a play? There are no right answers. Only a head-first slide by Waters into the bag for a one-out single. A little squibber of a hit, yet it felt appropriately seismic. These are the sparks that ignite game-winning rallies.

After a force out at second, Kyle Isbel dropped into a 0-2 hole. The Royals were down to their final strike. It seemed as though the spark had been extinguished. They would be swept by the Yankees. They would finish the homestand with a 2-5 record.

Isbel then watched the next three pitches miss the zone. With a 3-2 count, he lined a soft single to center. Launch angle matters. Runners were on the corners.

Garcia ended the proceedings with a double down the third base line. At 105 MPH off the bat, it was an emphatic exclamation point on a frustrating week. Once Isbel raced around third, the frustrations had given way to different emotions: Joy. And relief.

This is going to sound insane (yet probably entirely on brand), but the statement has to be made. The most important three outs of the game came in the top of the first inning.

Nuts? I don’t think so. Not after what we watched game after game after game in this homestand. In fact, in all six games prior to Thursday, the Royals fell behind before they ever had the chance to swing the bat. It’s enough to give one a complex. Four times, the opposition hung a crooked number. Twice they tallied just one run. In Wednesday’s bloodletting, the Yankees chased the opener and battered the bulk man to the tune of six runs in the first.

Not to tap into the Zen Of Hudler too much, but these things do seem to take on a life of their own. Why is this happening? Will this ever stop? Who among the pitchers can prevent this? This required a strict recalibration of mojo. This wasn’t some sort of novelty. It was damn serious. Forget Jobu. If there is a patron saint of lost first inning causes, the Royals were going to start lighting candles.

It would fall to Alec Marsh. When last seen on the Kauffman Stadium mound on Saturday, he gave up only a single run in the first. That automatically made him the most likely to succeed, even against a Yankee lineup thirsty for more first inning bloodshed.

Marsh was unperturbed. He retired leadoff man Anthony Volpe on a fly ball to left. He then made Juan Soto look silly as he chased a low changeup and then a slider down and out of the zone for a strikeout.

This was your first tip that Marsh wasn’t going to be easy for the Yankees. Four different pitches to Soto, all down in the zone where he struggles, hitting just .188 this season. The location and mix were perfect. Marsh was on it.

Aaron Judge was next. After a fastball off the plate for a ball, Marsh jumped ahead in the count with another four-seamer and a sinker in on his hands. The fourth pitch was a slider well off the plate. Well-intentioned after coming inside, but just a little too far off the dish to entice Judge.

This slider actually sets up Marsh’s next pitch. A sweeper that was, in a word, devastating.

The Marsh sweeper comes in about five MPH slower than the slider. It features more break—on both planes. It drops about four inches more vertically and has seven more inches of horizontal run to the glove side. That’s why he can get Judge to offer at the sweeper when he passes on the slider, even though they’re both roughly in the same location. The sweeper starts out on the lower corner of the zone and has the shape of the slider. Judge is out in front of it and realizes it’s moving further off the plate than he thought. The result is a sword.

This in itself is impressive. Judge has, according to Statcast, the fifth-fastest average swing in the majors. He lets it fly. This was just the fourth time this year Judge has been befuddled into taking a half-hearted swing like this.

And with that, Marsh delivers both a clean first inning and a statement to the Yankees.

Once the first hurdle was cleared, the Royals needed to apply some offensive pressure. They had played three games against these Yankees and not once had they held a lead. Hell, due to their first inning struggles, they hadn’t even been able to keep the game tied.

The pressure would come from a quick strike in the fourth. After Yankees starter Nestor Cortes faced the minimum through the first three frames, he issued a leadoff walk to Maikel Garcia on four pitches, none of which were remotely close to the zone. It’s not a late-inning leadoff walk, but when a pitcher on cruise control suddenly loses his command like that, it’s usually a similar type of harbinger of struggles ahead. Still, Cortes got ahead of Bobby Witt Jr. 0-2 and then dropped a slider well out of the zone. Witt offered at it and managed to ground it back up the middle just out of the reach of the second baseman. It extended Witt’s hitting streak to a career-best 14 games. More importantly, it put a little pressure on Cortes.

Again, the Yankee lefty jumped ahead 0-2, this time to Vinnie Pasquantino. Pasquantino fouled off a couple of tough pitches, spit on two more out of the zone and then climbed the ladder to drive a 2-2 splitter to center field for a double worth two runs. Deuces wild, indeed.

With Pasquantino on second with nobody out, the Royals couldn’t do any more damage. Still, they held a vital 2-0 lead.

Why is this man so angry?

I tell you what, I love seeing this from Matt Quatraro. We know he’s as even-keeled and mild-mannered as they come. To see him have the ass in this situation was perfect. What was the situation, you ask?

Quatraro was out to argue a call that wasn’t made. In the sixth inning, after Witt was picked off first, attempting to steal on first movement, his path to second base was clearly obstructed by shortstop Anthony Volpe. Alas. This is not a play that is subject to review. Witt was out. He shouldn’t have been out. You can’t blame Quatraro for blowing a gasket.

I fail to understand why, if replay is available to overturn calls, it can’t be used in all situations. They couldn’t go to the video center to take a look at this, an obvious obstruction call. Yet they’ll examine a replay where a runner’s foot may have lifted off the bag by a millimeter as if it’s the Zapruder film. My god. Ultimately, Witt’s oven mitt hit Volpe’s foot which was, as you can clearly see, positioned in a way that would prevent Witt from making contact with the bag.

What a moment for Quatraro to do that. The Royals were ahead 2-0, but they could use that kind of pick-me-up from their skipper. That he was out there protecting his best player was not unnoticed. And bonus…he was completely justified for going off like that. The umpiring crew had a difficult series from the Royals’ perspective. All that and four losses in a row will cause one to have the ass every so often.

He missed a great finish.

Meanwhile, through six innings, Marsh was flat-out dealing. It was some of the most impressive pitching I’ve seen this season and given the rotation has featured some domination from Cole Ragans and some craftiness from Seth Lugo, this is indeed high praise.

He was spinning his curve for strikes. He was getting whiffs (as you saw) with his slider/sweeper combo. And he was keeping the Yankees off balance with a fastball that averaged 95 MPH and a change that dropped in at 87 MPH. It was a head-spinning array of six different pitches—not a single offering thrown more than 26 percent of the time.

Marsh did not allow a hit through six innings. The only baserunners came via a two-out walk in the second and a leadoff free pass in the third. That walk, to Austin Wells, was erased on a double play one pitch later. It was as low-stress an outing as one can have against these Yankees.

Juan Soto broke up the no-no with a leadoff single in the seventh. Whatever. Marsh got Judge on strikes (for the third time of the afternoon) and then got Alex Verdugo to wave at an elevated fastball. A little exclamation point before Gleyber Torres flew out to end the threat, and at 96 pitches, Marsh’s brilliant afternoon.

Marsh finished with a Game Score of 80, tied for the highest total posted by a Royals starter this year. It’s now been done four times in 2024:

3/31 - Brady Singer vs Minnesota
4/6 - Michael Wacha vs Chicago White Sox
5/12 - Seth Lugo at Los Angeles Angels
6/13 - Alec Marsh vs New York Yankees

Who’s missing? Oh yeah, that Cole Ragans guy. His high Game Score this season is 79. What amazing performances at times from the entire rotation.

Thursday, it was just an absolute banger of a performance from Marsh. One the Royals really had to have. It was just up to the bullpen to lock things up and deliver the victory.

Gulp.

If the first seven innings of Thursday’s game served as a reminder of the strengths of these Royals as they pushed their way to early contention (great starting pitching, timely hitting), the eighth was a microcosm of what’s been the weakness that could potentially undercut this team as the season evolves.

John Schreiber was the first man out of the bullpen. Schreiber had a good April, a poor May and had been off to a decent start this month, throwing four scoreless innings in four appearances. One thing he hadn’t done? Allow a home run.

It took two pitches for Anthony Rizzo to rectify that as he crushed a hanging sweeper to put the Yankees on the board. From there…pain.

An error committed by Garrett Hampson at second base with one out started the deluge. A lot happened on that particular play. The ball took a bit of an exaggerated hop that clearly, and understandably, took Hampson by surprise. He knocked the ball down and recovered to make a throw, but it was a little off line and Pasquantino couldn’t handle it at first. I think Vinnie was moving to the bag and preparing to set up at a particular angle to receive the throw from where it would’ve been delivered had Hampson fielded it cleanly. Instead, he had to make a quick adjustment once he got to the bag and wasn’t prepared to grab a throw that was off target. It’s a catch that Pasquantino really should’ve made.

A single put runners on the corners. A ground ball to Garcia at third, where his only play was at first, brought home the tying run. With Soto coming up, the Royals opted for lefty Angel Zerpa. Schreiber and Zerpa are both in Quatraro’s circle of bullpen trust, but it feels like it’s only because someone has to be there. Soto lined a single to right to bring home the go-ahead run. Drew Waters threw home trying to catch that runner but the throw…it’s best left if we don’t discuss.

However…However!…the throw enticed Soto to try to take the extra base. It was such a poor throw that I don’t think it was a bad decision on his part. Freddy Fermin made a great backhanded snare on a ball that was going to bounce for a third time while going up the first base line. He quickly set his feet and fired a seed down to second.

Do you love Freddy Fermin? You should. I simply adore the way the guy plays the game. He’s always ready for whatever is developing in front of him and is completely unfazed. Bad throw and a lead surrendered? He’s not thinking about that because he’s got his eyes on making a play.

The Royals had a chance to create some havoc of their own in the bottom of the eight. Luke Weaver, who the Yankees have somehow turned into an asset out of the bullpen, was spraying the ball all over the place. He walked Witt (who ended up reaching base three times on the afternoon) and then did the same with Pasquantino. That brought up Salvador Perez, who, after watching the first pitch barely miss the zone, swung at the second cutter.

The result was a flyout. Perez has walked nine times in his last 46 plate appearances, including a career-high three on Wednesday. His batting average has dipped over the last month or so and his power has ebbed as well. In his last 20 games, he’s hit just one home run and four doubles, good for a .306 slugging percentage. At bats like this aren’t going to help him get on track. I understand that he wants to make things happen, but sometimes he just has to reign it in a bit. It was a poor at bat in a critical situation. Normally, I wouldn’t even point this out because, you know…Salvy. But he’s shown some discipline this season and he’s come through for this team in big moments. I need him to keep that magic going for the next few months.

The post-mortem of this game was, as you might expect, Yankee-centric. I caught a little of the panel on MLB Network and they were ripping on Soto for trying to get to second base on the Waters throw. I mean, really going after him. As if the Yankees would’ve scored five or six more runs had he not attempted to take an extra base. At The Athletic, the headline was “What went wrong in Yankees’ 9th-inning meltdown loss to Royals.” I mean…Meltdown? The article focuses on the tweener ground ball from Waters. It also contains the misstatement that Marsh entered the game with a 6.05 ERA. Because heaven forbid a pitcher like Marsh strangle the vaunted New York lineup. (Marsh’s ERA entering the game was 4.05. It’s now at 3.63 after he threw seven shutout innings.)

I know, I know. My Midwestern Nice is showing. Still, is it so damn difficult to give the Royals a little credit here? They got great starting pitching from a guy who has shown that kind of ability on occasion this season. They got timely hits. And they didn’t give up after suffering a truly brutal meltdown of their own. In other words, they did exactly what they’ve been doing all season long. Only they had the gall to do it against the mighty Yankees. Cripes. Pay attention, national media people!

No Central Division recap today as this post is going a little long and I’d rather just focus on the boys playin’ some ball. Have a good weekend and we’ll reconvene at this space on Monday.