Game 1 - 11 runs in 7 innings

Since then? 2 runs in 22 innings

Royals Baseball!

Bullpen falters again.

And the Royals lose their second straight series to open the season.


Great start to the year!

3 extra innings so far have produced exactly one run on the season. That’s not going to get it done.

On the bright side, at least the rest of our division sucks so far too.

It didn't help that once again Ragans got his pitch count up and lasted only 5 innings (whereas Peralta threw the same number of pitches and went 8). That forced us to go to the meat of the bullpen early. A couple more innings from the No. 1 starter, maybe we have higher-quality arms available in extra innings.

Why does the coaching staff have so much confidence in Sam Long?

we have 6 hits in the last 20 innings

He was the 7th reliever they used of the 8 on the roster

I’ve caught Royals fever

And it’s terminal

May I ask why the pitcher went to 1b with the ball on a squeeze play? There's not two outs. If that run scores the game is over. What was the game plan there?

Yep.

Pretty close to his first outing, except he only gave up 1 run today. We gotta more Inning production from our Ace, and he'll get there for sure.

Sam Long is The Tarded, that's why.

Wouldn’t have mattered.

He was basically picking up the ball the same time the guy slid across the plate.


If you’re speaking more to the pitchers situational awareness in general, then I don’t have a good answer for you other than it’s Sam Long, who is roughly #7 or #8 in the bullpen pecking order.

Seasons over.

Oh well

Yeah there was no play to be had at the plate but I still would have preferred he toss it over there 3 seconds too late than sling to first base.

Anybody got a guess at their May 1st record?

25 games left this month. I’ll go 13-18

You have to throw it to home and hope he misses the plate, breaks a leg, etc. Going to first is just dumb af no matter what.

Sac bunting to move a guy from 2nd to 3rd in Extras has got to be a negative to run expectations. I'm not sure the N is high enough yet for us to really say with certainty, but sac bunting in general is a run-depressing move.

It's one thing if you're the home team and you know you only need one. If you're the road team, you should absolutely not be sac bunting. At all.

I really, really like so much about this team. But yeah, it's a quality bat short of what it needs for the offense to function consistently.

India has been a very nice addition. But they need another guy with some juice to hit behind Perez. I am encouraged by what we've seen from Garcia so far, and would love for him to be an answer at 3B or in the OF. Really need to upgrade one of those corner spots, though.

I can't complain too much. My answer was Jurickson Profar, and we saw how that has gone. Maybe they can find an answer internally.

The Royals need to start having coaches just yell situational baseball basics from the dugout. Make it sound like a little league game being played. Never assume the players know what to do. This especially should be done when we have baserunners as they have even less of a clue.

Cole, Lugo & Wacha all had short outings their first start last year too. None went more than 5.

Their second time through the rotation Cole went 6 1/3, Lugo 6 2/3 and Wacha 7. Granted this was Cole’s second, but I think they’ll be alright.

Oddly enough, Singer was our best pitcher to start the year last year his first few times through the rotation.

His first start this season with the Reds was basically a carbon copy of his first start last year for the Royals. Sadly, we know where this eventually ends up.

Offense struggled the last two games. Couldn't get a rally going. The bullpen isn't good enough to win games 2-1 or 3-2. This offense should be, IMO, better than this.

Losing in the divisional playoffs?

Pitch framing is the dumbest ****ing thing ever created by analytics and I’ll go to my grave saying it. Years in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later) it will be a distant memory when the automated strike zone is used and any catcher whose HOF candidacy was hurt or helped by it, should be re-evaluated and reconsidered.

This is a big reason why I think Sal will be kept out of the HOF, and maybe he gets into eventually, but it won’t happen for several years. If it wasn’t for that stupid ****ing made up bullshit stat, he would have double the amount of Gold Gloves right now.

Was talking about how it ends for Singer (we’ve seen this movie too many times), not the Royals.

Oh I agree -- wouldn't have made a bit of difference.

But if he has his head in the game he at least makes one of those futile scoop/flips at home because...why not? Maybe the dude stumbles or something.

Going to 1b with it was just braindead. Guessing he didn't realize there was only 1 out? Because he sure was emphatic with that throw to 1st, as though it meant a damn thing.

Yeah - you can't bunt there on the road, IMO.

Goal in extras as a road team needs to be 2 runs. I see very little utility in the bunt there by the road team.

Gotcha. I read it wrong.

Singer has the talent. Be interesting how that little league field will **** with his brain.

This offense blows. There is no way you can tell me there wasn't ANYONE out there better than the POS Isbel. What a joke.

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We never got that middle of the order bat that JJ promised us in his after season press conference and it’s showing.

Yeah, I know we tried (Santander, etc.) with a couple guys, but ‘tried’ isn’t good enough. They needed to get that shit done. Period. Especially when we got 3 TOR guys in which one is likely gone after this year and the other will fall off the year after. The time to strike was this 3 year window (last year, this year, next year).

Apparently the new plan is to sit patiently and hope and pray Jac develops into suped up Joey Gallo with a lower K rate. :shrug:

would rather see Erceg in the Estevez role at this point..

Erceg has essentially become the fireman, where you bring him in the highest leverage situation, which I dont necessarily have an issue with.

He’s CLEARLY our best bullpen guy.

He saved Zerpa’s butt today or that game probably never goes to extra innings.

It can't be good for team chemistry to see ****ing losers like Isbel and Melendez shit themselves and get rewarded with playing time. No consequences for sucking. Hell, I'd rather rush someone up than play these talentless bums. Also, Erceg needs to give blood transfusions to these weak ass jagoff relievers. No one but him has any sack. Doesn't help.that our manager uses an outdated pitching rotation app on his iPhone to make bullpen decisions. He is wrong 99% of the time. Like ****ing cursed by gypsies wrong.

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there were no fires to put out when he came into the game today...Estevez had a blaze going

Problem is that if Caglianone develops as you hope, the Royals are probably breaking even as Salvador ages out.

Unless Mitchell develops -- and he's a good prospect in his own right. Probably not who I'd have taken (I'd have looked at Dollander with that pick, maybe Shaw), but he has every possibility of being a good player.

But like any mid/small market team these days, you need more than one thing to go right. And it's a real bitch and a half that when something goes AS right as Bobby Witt Jr, you're still probably 4-5 small miracles away from contention.

But that's the blessing and curse of baseball. One guy just can't carry the load.

Jeezus, glad I was working this morning. How do you lose 2/3 to a team that was reelling at 0-4?

Box says:

Witt 0/4
Pasq 0/4
Sal 0/4
Renfroe 0/4
etc.

Good luck in B-more fellas!

New grass on the field...

Witt, Pasq, and Sal all consecutively SO in a key moment late in the game against the Brewers pen, which is challenging to overcome when you have a Sure Out...field after them in the lineup

Chin up boyz! We will all be 2-4 after tonite!

Only 10 years too late

Yeah, Zerpa got screwed on some pitches today

Were we watching the same game?

Zerpa came in the 7th and it was a 1-1 game. He immediately walked a guy and then gave up a double to Ortiz. Was 2nd and 3rd no outs just like that.

The Royals got Erceg up and loose in a hurry, but Angel did have to face another batter. Luckily he was able to get the ground out w/o runners advancing and then Erceg came in with guys on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out.

And considering he was facing Chourio and then Yelich pinch hitting, both with 2 runners in scoring position, I'd consider that the very definition of needing a 'fire put out'. :shrug: