Supermen

Down 8-0, the Royals stage some kind of comeback to walk-off as 10-9 winners. What a night.

I have no idea where to begin, but I know exactly how it ends.

It’s enough to almost take pity on opposing teams that enter the ninth inning with a lead against the Royals. They have no idea the hell that’s about to be unleashed. With the Royals down 9-7 to start the inning, Nick Loftin drew a leadoff walk. I wasn’t listening to the radio, but I knew exactly what Denny was saying at that moment. Because of course it’s a leadoff walk. It’s always the leadoff walk in the late innings that will kill you. Was that the moment you knew?

Or was it when Garrett Hampson chops a swinging bunt to third that Josh Rojas fields but then makes an ill-advised, and errant, throw to first that puts runners on second and third with nobody out? Is that when you knew? Maybe it was when Maikel Garcia fell behind 0-2 and then hit a run-scoring grounder to short to draw the Royals to within a run.

And then Bobby Witt Jr. steps to the plate. This surely was when you surrendered your doubts. Surely. Witt has become a magnet for these moments of late. It’s uncanny how he’s always in the middle. The 2024 Royals are Bobby’s team.

Witt falls behind 0-2. He’s trying to calm himself at the plate, but to my eyes, he looks a little twitchy. He knows the stakes. Everyone knows the stakes. He expanded the zone against reliever Ryne Stanek, chasing a 99 MPH four-seamer up and away for the first strike and then offering at a 97 MPH fastball that ran in on him. Witt really protected the plate going wide to foul off the next pitch. After a deep breath, the next pitch was a 0-2 splitter that didn’t drop down enough. Witt was ready.

Down the third base line, Hampson could walk home from second. The game was tied. At this moment, it’s already a helluva comeback. But Witt wasn’t satisfied. These 2024 Royals are a bloodthirsty gang. They poke and chip and dink until their opponent is stunned into submission. Then they strike. As such, this was where Witt went for the kill. He never slowed down as he rounded second and slid into third with a triple.

As Witt lined that ball down the left field line, were you thinking triple? Were you thinking anything in that moment that was remotely coherent? Myself, I stared at the proceedings, slack-jawed, unflinching as he pressed the pedal to the floor and rounded second. Of course he was going for third. He made the trip in 10.98 seconds. Assassins are about the opportunity.

By now, surely you believed.

Seattle chose to intentionally walk Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez to load the bases, but in this moment it was all academic. They were already doomed.

Nelson Velázquez lined a ball to shortstop J.P. Crawford who, like the rest of the Mariners infield, was playing halfway. It was a hard-hit ball that was to his left. He dove, but couldn’t field it cleanly. They got one out, but they needed two. Witt raced home and didn’t stop running. Velázquez, just like he did in the last Royals walkoff less than a week ago, busted out of the box and made sure he wouldn’t be doubled up.

Safe. Ballgame. Bedlam.

You could call it an improbable comeback, but that would be inaccurate. With this team, anything is possible.

That’s some kind of win probability chart. But this is some kind of Royals team. Whew. I’d call it a Friday night well-spent.

As you are undoubtedly aware, I don’t normally publish on Saturdays. Sometimes though, exceptions need to be made. Plus, it’s another chance to ask for subscribers. Join us, won’t you?

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The Royals were in a deep hole almost immediately because starter Daniel Lynch IV didn’t have it in the first. It was rough. He couldn’t command his slider and hit two of the first four batters with the pitch. Seattle loaded the bases with one out and Lynch induced Cal Raleigh to hit a shallow fly to left that failed to bring home the runner from third. Lynch was this close to getting out of the inning. He couldn’t do it.

He just wasn’t able to get anything to bite the plate and he walked Mitch Garver to bring home the first Mariner run. From there, it all went to hell. Two pitches brought two doubles, the first of which cleared the bases. Ryan Bliss then homered and the Royals were down 7-0 before they even swung a bat in anger.

I’m at a loss when it comes to Lynch. He was supposed to be the prospect from that 2018 draft with the highest upside. Instead, his development seems to have stagnated. His fastball has lost velocity since his prospect years. His slider, which was supposed to be his best secondary, is suspect. The changeup that he refined as he moved through the system has played in the past but is getting slaughtered this year.

Yet you have to hand Lynch some credit. He stayed in the game and after that disastrous inning, allowed just one more run. The Royals are embarking on a hellacious stretch of opponents with no off days on the horizon. Matt Quataro can’t burn through his bullpen at this moment. He needed Lynch to get back out there after 40 pitches in the first inning and just stanch the bleeding, especially after Brady Singer couldn’t finish four innings on Thursday. That’s pretty much what Lynch did, grinding through four innings, ending his night at 93 pitches.

I case you were wondering, Denny is feeling it.

I can’t speak for anyone other than myself but I always trust Denny. Always.

Credit again goes to the bullpen. One day after needing 5.1 innings from the relievers, the Royals required five frames on Friday. A different cast as you would expect from Thursday in Cleveland as Chris Stratton and Will Klein each handled two innings. Nick Anderson pitched the ninth and looked as sharp as he’s been all season, striking out two. Give them a group Hold.

There are still holes to patch here, but they do have the ability to come through.

The Royals offense showed their first signs of life in the fourth. Witt singled and Pasquantino walked to open the frame. Velázquez brought Witt home with an infield single. MJ Melendez was up with two runners on and the Royals down 8-1.

It was just Friday that I was asserting that if Melendez truly wanted to remake his swing, the place for that was the minor leagues. Heh.

Two games do not make this experiment right, but I’ll give it to him that it’s a promising start. And the new stance has yielded a swing that looks good.

It looks to me like he’s staying inside the baseball longer, instead of flying open. This was a pitch he was missing, or at least failing to drive, in the previous weeks. Look how he keeps his hands in and his hips move in concert with those hands. Things are in sync. He didn’t miss on Friday.

Hell, this could be The Melendez Game. Aside from his home run that really took a bite out of the Seattle lead, he made three nifty defensive plays in left. Two of them were going back on the ball and the other was coming in on a shallow fly ball. Last year, Melendez was worth -11 Outs Above Average in the outfield corner spots. This year, he’s at -1 OAA playing primarily in left. He’s not going to win a Gold Glove, but nobody is asking him to. He just needed to get better. He’s done that. Maybe he can do the same thing with the bat.

After showing some nifty skills evading that tag play at home on Thursday, Melendez had a complete game on Friday. Maybe this is the sequence of events that can kickstart his season. It feels like anything is possible in this moment.

We don’t know how this season is going to play out over the next three-plus months. We do know this team is special. Sometimes, it takes a few months for a personality of a team to develop. With these 2024 Royals though, we saw it emerge within the first couple of weeks. And as the schedule rolls on, this never-say-die attitude has evolved into a belief that, no matter how late in the game or how steep the deficit, they are truly never to be counted out.

Yes, this team is special. The boys are playin’ some ball.