Game thread XV - Royals at Guardians
Can KC force a fourth straight three-game-series rubber match to start the season?
Last night’s loss was a bad one. There’s no such thing as a must win game in April, but it sure would suck to catch the Guardians as they’re struggling and as the Royals appeared ascendant on their last home stand and leave with at least a series loss. If the Royals could win today, they’d have a shot to get the road trip started on the right foot with a series win tomorrow. But, of course, first they have to take care of their business today.
The first step toward taking care of business lies with the offense. For the last seven games since their offensive outburst against the Orioles, the Royals have average only two runs a game, topping out at four, and they have been shut out twice. Manager Matt Quatraro has been pushing different buttons to see what will work, getting the newly arrived Drew Waters into the lineup in each of the last two games. Backup catcher Freddy Fermin, usually a steady hitter if not a terrific one, also started in each of the last two games. MJ Melendez got the day off yesterday, Hunter Renfroe gets the day off today. At some point, however, it becomes less about which names Quatraro pencils into the lineup and more about which ones actually get on base.
The Royals have three hitters with a wRC+ above average right now. And one of them, Mark Canha, is on the injured list. Bobby Witt Jr. has really turned it on after a slow first week and leads the regulars with a 141 wRC+. Maikel Garcia is the only other batter hitting above average at a 124 wRC+. Many Royals fans were upset about Cavan Biggio being added to the team, but he currently has the fourth-best wRC+ at 89.
Jonathan India gets on base a good bit - he has a .333 OBP - but he only has a .275 slugging percentage. As bad as Melendez and Renfroe have been, the two hitters most hurting this lineup are Vinnie Pasquantino (48 wRC+) and Salvador Perez (60 wRC+) because they’re both in there every night and in the middle of the order. One of the reasons the Royals succeeded last year was that they could rely on Bobby, Vinnie, and Salvy. If Vinnie and Salvy don’t hit, it almost doesn’t even matter if Hunter and MJ do.
Anyway, Michael Lorenzen gets the start for KC tonight. He looked pretty good his last time out with six innings of one-run ball against the Twins in their win Monday night. Luis Ortiz will start for the Guardians. He had an atrocious first start of the season against the Padres, but his last start against the Angels was at least a quality effort, three runs in six innings. The Angels did get to him for seven hits and two home runs, though, so if the Royals' offense wanted to find someone easy to hit, they could do worse than Ortiz. Here’s hoping they wake up and stay awake for a while after facing him tonight.