Three Up, Three Down: Punchless

A new lineup yields familiar results, Kris Bubic unveils a slider and Bobby Witt Jr. makes one of the best catches you will ever see.

There will be no winning streak.

One night after breaking out offensively and posting their first win of the season, the Royals bats went back into cold storage. Only Matt Duffy hit with distinction, going 3-3 with three singles. The rest of the bat? 1-24 with a walk. We’ll discuss that other hit in a moment.

Starter Kris Bubic did enough to get through five and the bullpen coughed up a couple of runs.

The result? A 4-1 defeat to the Toronto Blue Jays. One of those instantly forgettable games. If this were August, we probably would have even noticed. But it’s April, the fifth game of the season and we’re still dialed in. And I appreciate my subscribers enough to provide this recap of said instantly forgetable contest. Much love.

Read on for three things that stood out in Tuesday’s loss.

May I confess a masochistic tendency I have? You know, just between us friends. I enjoy posting some of the more, let’s say, unique Royals lineups to Twitter. The replies and mentions that go along with that are…often entertaining.

In the five games we’ve seen this year, manager Matt Quatraro has rolled out a couple of lineups that qualify. Tuesday’s batting order saw several changes from the one that brought home the first win of the season on Monday. Sitting were Vinnie Pasquantino, MJ Melendez and Kyle Isbel. Salvador Perez was back in the lineup, hitting in his usual number three spot and so was Edward Olivares. Unlike his predecessor, there’s very much a method to Q’s lineup madness.

Monday’s starter was right-hander José Berríos, who possesses some fairly extreme platoon splits in his career. Thus, that Royals lineup was tilted heavily to the left. On Tuesday, the Jays sent southpaw Yusei Kikuchi to the bump. Kikuchi, who pitches from the stretch and works from the first base side of the rubber, is murder against left-handed batters.

This was the Royals’ exit velocity the first time through the order.

Seven balls were hard-hit. Nicky Lopez and Jackie Bradley Jr. were the only two lefties in the starting lineup.

You might have noticed the 110 MPH missile off the bat of Franmil Reyes. Friends, it was crushed.

The Reyes bomb was obviously the best outcome. Kikuchi was done going through the Royals lineup twice, facing just 18 batters through five innings. It was one of those nights for the offense where the process was right. The results just weren’t there.

The lineup left the Royals a bit exposed later in the game. Matt Quatraro went to Pasquantino to pinch hit for Hunter Dozier in the seventh against the right-handed Yimi García. The Jays countered with lefty Tim Mayza. With Mayza coming in at that point, he was able not only to get Pasquantino, but Bradley and, an inning later, Lopez. Four batters faced for Mayza, three from the left side and four strikeouts.

The Royals’ own lefty, Kris Bubic, made his 2023 debut and unveiled his new slider. It was an effective pitch. He offered it nine times and got five swings against it. None were put in play and he got three swings and misses. Two of those were for the third strike in an at-bat. That gives it the potential to be a weapon.

Otherwise, though, it was more of the same. The fastball was up and all over the place. The change and curve were taking up residence down the middle a bit too often. The Jays were getting good swings and there was traffic on the bases all night for Bubic. The curve was hit hard—the average exit velocity on the seven that were put in play was a strong 97.5 MPH—but the most damage was done on the fastball and changeup.

His best inning was his last inning. The first two Jays—Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero Jr.—went first pitch hunting and then he whiffed Matt Chapman on a good changeup that rode on the inner half and dropped out of the zone.

A bit of a mixed bag for Bubic. He had 14 swings and misses—tied for the sixth most in an outing in his career—and did make some good pitches. But the command issues still seem to be a thing. If anything, he should get the opportunity to build and improve on this outing with a few more turns as the fifth starter.

Let’s close with how the game opened. It’s a gif of one of the finest defensive plays you’ll ever see. This is not hyperbole.

The Statcast metrics are insane. He covered 95 feet on the catch. His sprint speed was 28.6 ft/sec. And he was running away from home plate. From David Adler on Twitter, using MLB Field Vision.

Witt’s rookie campaign was a rough one, defensively speaking. The Royals have committed to him at shortstop because they feel he’s better than the metrics rated him. There were certainly some rough edges last season, times when it felt as though the game was moving a bit fast for him, but it’s smart that the Royals are going to run him out there on a regular basis this season. His athleticism alone makes him a potentially superior defensive shortstop in this league.

Using the eye test in the games I’ve watched this year, he looks much more comfortable at the position. Like his bat, give his glove some time. He’s going to be just fine.