Royals lose another battle of offensive ineptitude to the team that remembers how to hit dingers, 2-1
Tonight’s result doesn’t really matter, so don’t get worked up about it.
The Royals lost their second straight game in Atlanta. There’s not a whole lot of interest to report. Seth Lugo pitched only two innings. He was followed by Michael Lorenzen for two, then Daniel Lynch IV for two. John Schreiber went an inning and Sam Long tried to go more than one inning but gave up the walk-off dinger to Travis D’Arnaud with one out in the ninth. It was the second night in a row an Atlanta backstop hit a home run to give his team the margin of victory.
From one perspective, the Royals' offensive woes continued. They only scored one run on a double play groundout by Dairon Blanco in the third inning. From another, most of their starters were sitting on the bench for most of the night. Still, it’s reasonable to question if the Royals have the bats to get it done in October (though there are hints Vinnie Pasquantino might be back in time for the Wild Card series...)
From still a third perspective, it seems equally clear the Royals pitching is prepared for the postseason, They gave up only two runs for the second straight night. The first was a throwing error on a groundball to Lorenzen. The second was the D’arnaud home run surrendered by Sam Long who will very likely not be asked to pitch a second inning in October. Especially since he gave up the homer tonight.
It is a little disappointing because the Tigers lost to the White Sox tonight and a win could have put the Royals back into the fifth seed, but ultimately they’re traveling to face one talented but flawed team or another in the Orioles or Astros. Which of them they’ll see doesn’t matter as much as how they play when they get there. If the pitching keeps going at the pace they are, the Royals will be in any contest against any team. But they’ll need the bats to show up eventually.
The Royals will play the season finale tomorrow. Cole Ragans will not be starting in that one. Presumably, he will instead be preparing to make the first start of the Wild Card series. At last check, neither team had announced starters for tomorrow’s game. It seems to me that Alec Marsh is the only qualified starter remaining for the Royals after tonight’s work. Though it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Royals use an opener for him especially since he’ll be pitching out of the bullpen in October.
Hopefully, we’ll see a more “normal” Royals starting lineup and perhaps they’ll even unlock some of their missing offense while playing in a game that essentially doesn’t matter for them. It would be nice to head to the postseason with a good offensive game to get them revved up and confident. Either way, the game will start at 2:20 Central. So you can at least watch the beginning before the Chiefs take on the Chargers.