Socking it to the Sox
White or Red, it doesn't matter. After taking three of four from both colors, the Royals are equal opportunity Sox destroyers.
Remember that whole “Singles Train” from several years ago? Of course you do. The fun thing about that was it was how the Royals scored runs. They’d add a little razzle-dazzle in the form of a stolen base, or a productive out—small ball, don’t ya know—but they sliced open the opposition by stringing together singles. Naturally, a big fly would help, but with the Royals, the rallies would begin and end with singles.
The White Sox aren’t running a singles train on purpose. They have some potential big boppers in the lineup. Except, not only are they running a singles train, their track only seems to run 270 feet. They just can’t bring any of those runners home.
On Thursday afternoon, they were at it again. Zack Greinke allowed nine hits in 6.1 innings of work—all singles. He allowed no runs because he didn’t walk a batter and no one in the Sox lineup was capable of a big hit against him. The delivers held Chicago at bay as the Royals won 5-3, winning three out of four against the White Sox. Just as they did against the Red Sox last weekend.
Six wins in eight games on the homestand? Don’t look now, but the Royals are hot. They also just don’t care for the Sox. No matter the color.
Greinke allowed back-to-back singles to start the second inning. He escaped on a fly out to center and a double play off the bat of Lenyn Sosa. The Houdini act Greinke pulled in the third was even more impressive. Back-to-back-to-back singles opened the inning and brought up the heart of the Chicago order.
First up, Eloy Jiménez.
Think Greinke had a plan on how to pitch him? The first curve was well off the plate and taken for a ball. Cutter down followed by two curves, the second of which was just a little further off the plate than the first. All three pitches were waved at. Out number one.
The next victim, Jose Abreu.
Less of a plan here against the dangerous Abreu, but more of a kitchen sink approach. The curveball was well off the plate and, like the Jiménez at bat, looked at for ball one. The fastball was waved at. The next pitch was a curve that was a thing of beauty, just catching the inside edge. Greinke then delivered the dagger, a changeup that looks a helluva lot like his fastball coming out of his hand and with the velocity that’s not a lot different from that fastball.
The Greinke change features about 33 inches of vertical drop and 13 inches of horizontal movement. The fastball, which runs around three MPH faster, generally possesses 17 inches of vertical drop and barely any horizontal run at all. Greinke threw just nine changeups all afternoon. He got six swings and of those, three missed completely. With that kind of movement, it’s easy to see how a hitter would miss. He’s thinking the pitch looks like a fastball and at the last moment it ducks and dives, literally swerving around the bat. Nasty.
Greinke then closed out the inning getting Yasmani Grandal to ground out to short.
That was a run where Greinke retired nine in a row. Despite the traffic on the bases in the first three innings, it was hardly surprising that Greinke would go on a run like that. He completely exorcised the Sox batter’s will to hit.
While Greinke turned in his best start of 2022 on Thursday, he was simply staying true to the starting pitching form over these last several games. Focusing specifically on the White Sox series, Brady Singer, Jonathan Heasley, Kris Bubic and then Greinke combined for 24.2 innings of work. They allowed 28 hits, 23 of which were singles.
The Sox managed three home runs off starters (two against Heasley and one off Singer), but all three came with the bases empty. So Chicago plated six runs off Royals’ starters in those 24.2 innings. Two of the runs against Bubic were unearned, so that works out to a tidy 1.46 ERA over this four-game series from the starting pitchers.
Oh, there was also the bit where they struck out 22 White Sox batters while walking just four.
This week was just the culmination of a starting pitching renaissance. Since the All-Star break the Royals’ starters have posted a 3.88 ERA with a 7.8 SO/9 and 2.8 BB/9. Those numbers are solidly in the middle of the pack, as is their collective 1.4 fWAR over this stretch. But it’s a helluva long way from where they were in the first couple of months of the season. We’re seeing some serious progress from this staff. They’re keeping their team in ballgames. They’re giving their club a chance to win. And as we have seen so far in this homestand where the Royals have reeled off six wins in eight games, they’re capitalizing on those chances.
Vinnie Pasquantino has played in seven of the Royals’ eight games on this homestand. Over that stretch, he’s hit .400/.448/.800 in 25 plate appearances. He’s walked three times and struck out just twice.
Oh, he’s also hit three home runs. Including this shot on Thursday to open the scoring for the Royals.
Pasquantino has now hit six dingers in his big league career. They have an average exit velocity of 104.7 MPH with a launch angle of 26.3 degrees. Here’s the wild part about this…They’re traveling just 384 feet on average.
His spray chart for his base hits is equally wild.
Plenty of opposite field knocks. The power is (obviously) to the pull side. To me though, this gels with his strikeout and walk rates. The guy has a plan at the plate that evolves with the situation. He is capable of squaring the baseball and hitting it hard (he generally does with a hard-hit rate approaching 50 percent), but can adjust to get the ball in play.
Watch that gif again. It’s a 3-2 slider from Dylan Cease that’s down in the zone. He’s not supposed to be hitting that pitch out of the yard. It was an easy swing where the baseball just leaps off his bat. It was classified as a “barrel” by Baseball Savant, one of 13 Pasquantino has had this summer in 119 balls put in play. That’s close to an 11 percent barrel rate. That’s a really strong rate.
Here’s how the Royals’ hitters look as far as hard-hit rate and barrels (minimum 100 batted ball events).
Man, that quartet at the top looks nice. Pasquantino was the last to join, but he fits right in. His pace isn’t far off from what we’ve seen from Salvador Perez or MJ Melendez.
The Baby Royals, man. Big fun.
Minor matters
After the trade deadline and the draft, Baseball America updated their prospect lists. I’m no hard-core prospect hound, but I do enjoy lists. And BA updating their’s after all the mid-season action is more than welcome. Not only are there additions to be made, but there have also been plenty of subtractions as the Royals have fully committed to the young players.
Nick Pratto is BA’s top prospect. That’s not going to last long. Same for Michael Massey at number three.
Andrew Hoffman (15) and Drew Waters (17), who arrived to the organization from the Braves in the trade where the Royals sent their supplemental first-round pick to Atlanta, both land in the top 20. Pitchers Beck Way (Yankees for Benintendi), Maximo Castillo (Toronto for Merrifield) and T.J. Sikkema (Yankees for Benintendi) fall together from 23 to 25.
Recent draftees Gavin Cross and Cayden Wallace land at number two and four, respectively.
Overall, nine of the top 30 prospects according to BA joined the organization in July. That’s about restocking the minors.
Central issues
It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on the AL Central (because really, what’s been the point), but news was made out of Detroit as Al Avila was fired as the Tigers’ general manager on Wednesday.
You could argue the timing was a bit odd. The draft and the resulting signings have come and gone. So too has the trade deadline. For a club like the Tigers, languishing in the basement of the Central, there’s little to do over these next couple of months.
Except to formulate a plan for the next season. Once ownership decided it was time for Avila to exit, they made the move. (Yes friends, you are apparently allowed to fire a general manager—or probably president—during the season.) In fact, this wasn’t the first time in recent history the Tigers made a front office move in-season. Avila had been the Tigers’ GM since August of 2015, when he replaced Dave Dombrowski. I guess August is firing season for Detroit general managers.
Avila went big this offseason, signing Javier Báez to a six-year, $140 million deal. Báez is having the worst year of his career (excluding Covid 2020), hitting .220/.267/.372 with an 80 OPS+. Avila also signed pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez who hasn’t pitched since mid-May due to personal matters. It wasn’t just about this year. The returns he got in trades for veterans in the past have underwhelmed. And that may be underselling it.
Hey! Detroit owner Chris Ilitch didn’t make those trades!
Good grief. Ilitch also couldn’t remember when he extended Avila’s contract, trying to decide between 2019 and 2021. He guessed ‘21. It was 2019.
Seriously, when you look around the AL Central, there’s so much dysfunction and subpar baseball. The Royals are part of that, but damn if there isn’t an opportunity for someone to take charge and put together a divisional dynasty. Be bold, John Sherman!
Going into Friday’s games, the Tigers had a 43-70 record, second-worst in the AL.
Cleveland split a four-game set with the Astros over the weekend and then rolled the Tigers for three. Meanwhile, the Twins were the sacrificial offering to the Dodgers. That accounts for the power shift atop the division
Up next
Speaking of those Dodgers, it will be interesting to see how the Baby Royals match up against the best team in baseball. They have a .700 winning percentage for crying out loud.
Fri - RHP Tony Gonsolin (13-1, 2.30) vs. LHP Daniel Lynch (4-7, 4.79) @ 7:10 PM
Sat - LHP Andrew Heaney (1-0, 0.64) vs. RHP Brad Keller (6-12, 4.45) @ 6:10 PM
Sun - LHP Tyler Anderson (13-1, 2.72) vs. RHP Brady Singer (5-4, 3.49) @ 1:10 p.m.
A reminder that Buck O’Neil’s Hall of Fame plaque will be on loan in Kansas City from Cooperstown this weekend. On Friday, it will be on display at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum from 11 to 3. On Saturday, it will be at Kauffman Stadium as part of the Royals’ annual Salute to the Negro Leagues event. Fans can visit the plaque in the Royals Hall of Fame during the game.
It’s a good time for baseball in Kansas City.
"As dependable as Fernando Tatis Jr."
Nobody. Said. Ever.
Sometimes Greinke's pitch charts can be works of art that rival Vermeer's.