Ready for launch: The Royals even the ALDS

The Captain flipped the ignition switch on the Kansas City offense and the bullpen threw cold water all over New York's. The series is even.

When there’s a day off between the first and second game of a postseason series, the team that came out on the short end of the first game has roughly 48 hours to think about how they’ll respond. For the Royals, who dropped the first game of this ALDS, they stuck to their process—the moves and strategies that got them to this point would remain the same. The mantra remains “today.” You may knock them down, but damnit they’re going to get right back up. They’re a real-life Chumbawamba song.

There’s something to that zen-like attitude. A calmness that serves this team. The Royals arrived to Game Two, not as a team down in the series, but one full of belief that, if they continued to focus on their own game, they would take care of business. Today.

With Cole Ragans on the mound, with a slightly altered lineup to take into account their left-handed starting opponent and with manager Matt Quatraro pulling many of the same levers we’ve come to expect the Royals rode their pitching, defense and a single big inning to victory. A 4-2 win over the AL East champion New York Yankees evens the series at a game apiece.

I’m not sure you could’ve had a more Dickensian start to this game. The worst of times, the best of times, blah, blah, blah… Yankee starter Carlos Rodón came out throwing darts. Working exclusively four-seamer and slider. He was pounding the zone with the heat and had the Royals expanding the zone against the slider.

That will work all the time, every time. Outside of an immaculate inning, I’m not sure a pitcher can put up a better sequence of offerings over three batters.

After Rodón struck out the side, it was Cole Ragans’ turn to take the mound. His inning didn’t start in a similar fashion. He was spraying his four-seamer up and out of the zone against the Yankee leadoff hitter Gleyber Torres. Six pitches and a walk. Ragans then lost Juan Soto on a 3-2 cutter. Two batters. Two walks.

Yet from there, Ragans was able to find his footing. He punched out Aaron Judge on an elevated four-seamer at 97 MPH. Judge, as the broadcast noted, strikes out in the postseason at a world-record pace. Chopping at that kind of high heat isn’t going to help the old strikeout rate. Left-handed hitting Austin Wells was next. Ragans had the count to 2-2 on a couple of four-seamers and a pair of curves. Then, he broke off his first slider of the evening.

That’s an absolute knee-buckler.

Looking back, that may have been the highlight of Ragans’ night. The whole evening was just a grind. He walked the leadoff hitter in three of the four innings he pitched. The one inning when he didn’t walk the first batter, he gave up a single to the second man up. The only damage came across in the third when the leadoff walk (this time to Volpe again) was followed by back-to-back singles with two outs, the second of which ate up Bobby Witt Jr. at short. That one was off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton, who as we know from yesterday’s newsletter, can barely run the 90 feet required to hit the bag these days. The ball of the bat of Stanton wasn’t his normal 115 MPH screamer, but it was still on the screws at 96 MPH. A sinking line drive that was to Witt’s right that he could only try to backhand on something of a short hop.

Torres was able to score from second and the Yankees had a 1-0 lead.

Are you all cool if I quote myself from yesterday’s newsletter?

If you’re looking for a favorable matchup from someone in the Royals lineup against Rodón, how about Perez? Lifetime Salvy is 12-26 against Rodón with three home runs. That’s good for a line of .462/.481/.846.

After going first-pitch hunting against Rodón and popping out his first time up, Perez laid off a pair of sliders down and well out of the zone to open up the fourth. A 2-0 count for Perez against Rodón? After reading that quote above? Be still my heart.

Perez then got another slider. One just a little below the belt.

Perez’s average bat speed as measured by Statcast this season was 73.2 MPH. You don’t think he was amped and ready in case Rodón left a 2-0 slider in the zone? The swing you’re watching above was unleashed at 76.4 MPH. Yeah, The Captain was ready.

An aside: I don’t love it when the broadcast uses the ump cam during live action. It can be a bit awkward. Although you have to appreciate the timing here. Someone in that production truck is living right.

A still from that moment is just cool.

That white dot against the darkness of the Bronx sky…

Another angle, if you like…

There’s a fluidity to this swing. The plane of the bat going through the zone is so fast and so flat. The hip rotation that begins when his hands start to pull through. The follow-through that comes with knowing you just beat the pitcher. Again.

The Perez home run unstuck the rest of the offense against Rodón. Yuli Gurriel was up next and worked a seven-pitch at bat and dumped a single to left. He has just consistently put up solid plate appearances since joining this team, hasn’t he? I am just continually amazed that the Royals were able to add him so late in the season and that, at 40 years old, he’s been able to be a productive hitter in this lineup.

When the Yankees reflect on how this game got away from them, obviously it all happened in the fourth inning. Yes, the Royals strung together a few singles. But the Yankees contributed to their own demise in the frame by continually giving away second base.

As noted, Gurriel started the parade with a single. With Michael Massey up next, Gurriel advanced to second when the first pitch to the Royals second baseman spiked in the dirt and got past the catcher. Massey ended up striking out.

With one out and Gurriel on second, Tommy Pham lined a single to center to score Gurriel with the second run of the game. The next man up was Hunter Renfroe. He eventually struck out, but not before Pham was able to swipe second on a 2-2 pitch that was way up and out of the zone. Renfroe struck out on the next pitch.

That brought up Garrett Hampson who singled to left, bringing home Pham from second. Pham isn’t super fast or anything, but he got a good jump and was off and running with two outs. Still, New York left fielder Alex Verdugo came up throwing to the plate. It wasn’t a good throw, but that allowed Hampson to advance the extra 90 feet and take second.

Then Maikel Garcia cashed in the fourth, and final run, of the inning, driving Hampson home from second on a single to right. Garcia was caught in a rundown trying to, you guessed it, advance to second on the throw home.

To recap how the inning unfolded after the Perez home run:
- Gurriel single. Advances to second on a wild pitch.
- Pham single scores Gurriel. Advances to second via a stolen base.
- Hampson single scores Pham. Advances to second on the throw home.
- Garcia single scores Hampson. Out trying to advance to second on throw home.

I’m not sure what to call that. It’s not small ball. It’s not keeping the line moving. It’s just accepting a parade of gifts from some very generous hosts. Thank you for the extra 90 feet. Now we shall repay your generosity by scoring a run. Four of them, to be exact.

The way things were going, it was shocking that Ragans was pitching with a three-run lead.

In the fourth, after the Royals took that lead—stop me if you’ve heard this one before—Ragans walked the first batter of the inning. Sigh. He then delivered ball one to the next man up. It was at that moment Salvador Perez hopped out from behind the plate to go to the mound. As they picked up on the broadcast, Salvy motioned to the dugout that they needed to get the bullpen active. Ragans, who had struggled through the first three innings, really seemed to have hit a wall in the fourth, especially with the velocity of his four-seamer.

That dip at the end of the four-seam graph was the difference in the last four-seamer Ragans’ threw in the third inning at 96.4 MPH to the first four-seamer he threw in the fourth at 91.4 MPH. Ragans recovered some of that lightning, but after 87 pitches, most of which came from the stretch in what could be classified as high-stress situations given the fact that this is the postseason it was clear he could only go four innings on Monday.

Ultimately, what hampered this outing for Ragans was a lack of command. The four-seamer was consistently way up. He threw his change around 15 percent of the time compared to his normal 23 percent and couldn’t really entice Yankee hitters to swing. And when they did, they only missed twice on that pitch. That’s uncharacteristic.

By the end of his outing, Ragans had recorded five strikeouts, four of which were swinging but walked four and allowed three hits, all singles. That was eight total baserunners in four innings. Ragans finished with 13 swings and misses and a 30 percent CSW% (called strikes plus swings). Both are generally solid numbers but not what we see from a dominant Ragans start.

I thought for certain that Matt Quatraro would use Pham in the leadoff spot against the lefty Rodón. I was shocked and intrigued to see Garcia’s name in that position. It was the first time Garcia hit first for the Royals since August 31, or the day before Pham joined the team.

I had speculated that maybe the Royals would go this route as they were slumping toward the end of the regular season and looking to get the offense rolling. Garcia hit in front of Witt for most of the first half and while his numbers were certainly not great, nor were they even average, the offense did seem to click with Garcia in that spot. As Quatraro alluded to in the above quote, Garcia with that experience in the Venezuelan Winter Leagues seems to thrive in these high-octane type of atmospheres.

He went 4-4 with four singles, a stolen base and that final run driven home in the fourth.

After being a drag on the offense for most of the year, Royals leadoff hitters in the postseason are a combined 9-18.

Bobby Witt Jr. went hitless in back-to-back games just four times all season. And now he’s taken the collar in both games of this ALDS, going a combined 0-10 in these first two games.

Yet, I remain untroubled by this.

Just like on Saturday, the first two men out of the bullpen were Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber. Unlike on Saturday, those two were extremely effective.

Zerpa, who didn’t retire any of his three batters that night, was tasked with the exact same hitters in the top of the fifth, starting with Juan Soto. Soto, who singled against Zerpa on Saturday, was helpless on a slider.

To give a sense of dejá vu I suppose, Zerpa did walk Aaron Judge on four pitches, just like he did in Game One. This time, however, he got Aaron Wells to hit a roller back up the middle that Witt fielded near the bag to turn an easy as you like double play.

Instead of stepping into a bases-loaded mess, Schreiber got to start a clean inning. And it was a clean inning as the sidearming right-hander set down the three batters he faced. It wasn’t particularly smooth as he went to a 3-2 count to two of the hitters and a 2-2 count to the other. Twenty pitches total, but three outs in the air. After Saturday, yeah, you’ll take that.

Lefty Kris Bubic was next and Quatraro had him throw both the seventh and the eighth. Bubic allowed a leadoff single in each of those innings but limited any further damage. His defense helped him out in the eighth with a nifty 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Stanton. Revenge!

When you look at the box score and the highlight of the Yankees first run, a similar hit off the bat of Stanton, you would think that Witt had something of a rough night. Maybe, but watching him turn a couple of slick double plays says differently. He can just impact the game in so many ways that may not show up on the box score, but definitely make the highlight reels.

No need to second-guess Quatraro’s use of the bullpen. Not when the relievers combine to pick up Ragans for five innings. Although I have to admit I’m a bit surprised we have yet to see Daniel Lynch IV in the postseason. We last saw him on September 28 in Atlanta.

The ninth was left to Lucas Erceg. The closer threw 28 pitches on Saturday, tied for the third-highest total he’d offered in a game this year. He had the day off on Sunday to recover.

It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing there as Chisholm led off the ninth with a home run to right. It wasn’t one of those cheap Corporate Yankee Stadium jobs, either. This one was legit. Oh well. Better a solo shot when you’re up three than a three-run jack. I don’t think Erceg is a dude who gets rattled. He was able to come back and get the next two hitters.

First baseman Jon Berti singled with two outs, which flipped the lineup and brought Torres up as the game’s tying run. Erceg needed just a single pitch to settle the issue.

Look at Erceg’s reaction. I love it. Love it. It’s the closer’s equivalent to a bat flip. Induce a dangerous hitter to go after your 100 MPH heater on the inside and let out a roar.

The Royals now return home with the series even at a game apiece. Huge. Seth Lugo will be on the mound when the series resumes. Huge. I think the crowd at The K might be a little amped. Again, huge. It’s exactly what you want. The best-of-five series has now turned into a best-of-three.

The series resumes on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium. Lugo against Clarke Schmidt. First pitch will go at 6:08 CT.