Royals Can Blame Bad Bats & Bullpen Blunder for Series Loss

By Hunter Samuels | Sep 15, 2014

Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

I’ve said many times, in this space and on Twitter, that baseball managers don’t have much of an impact on the game. Almost all managers are the same, and they generally won’t waver too far from a fairly strict method of strategy. I’ve also said that if you think the manager cost your favorite team a playoff spot, the players weren’t good enough. I still strongly believe each of those statements, and until the manager position starts to change, I’ll continue to believe each of those statements.

However, yesterday’s outcome didn’t particularly help my argument.

When Ned Yost opted to go with Aaron Crow in the 6th inning, with 2 on and 1 out, I was confused. I think Crow is a bit better than he’s shown this year, but considering the other options available, this was an odd choice. And by “odd,” I of course mean, “awful.”

Look, I think many fans use the phrase “Yosted” far too often, because no game is decided by any one tactical decision by the manager, and there are several players who have a larger impact throughout any one game. Besides, many of the decisions made by a manager are made with some kind of logic or statistics to support them. That’s not always the case, but I’ve understood most of Yost’s calls this year, even if I don’t always agree with them. Generally speaking, the reasoning checked out.

This was not the case yesterday.

As I said, I think Crow can be a better pitcher than he’s been in 2014, but there is really no sound justification for using him in that spot against the Red Sox. In this instance, the Royals were Yosted.

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Yost said he went with Crow because he wanted a strikeout. This reasoning would make much more sense if the year were 2012. Entering yesterday, the only relievers on the roster with a lower strikeout rate than Crow were Casey Coleman and Scott Downs. Crow simply isn’t the strikeout pitcher he once was, and yet, that is what Yost said he was bringing into the game.

Kelvin Herrera normally enters the game in the 7th inning, and with how successful he’s been with inherited runners (only 24% of them have scored after he’s entered a game this year) one might suggest Yost call upon the first part of the Royals’ Cerberus to get an extra out or two. But alas, Yost stuck to the script as it was written in The Big Book of Baseball Managing, which requires relievers to have strict, defined roles, and Herrera remained in the pen.

With the back end of the bullpen off-limits for a couple more outs, Yost could have called upon Jason Frasor, who just so happens to strike out more than a batter per inning. Frasor has also walked only 3 batters in 13.2 innings with the Royals, so you probably wouldn’t worry too much about him giving free passes, either. It appeared to be an easy decision to make, and yet, Crow was the reliever for whom Yost signaled.

The rest of the inning went even worse than expected, with Crow surrendering a grand slam to slap-hitting Daniel Nava, and the Royals found themselves in a three-run deficit.

In the grand scheme of things, managers don’t matter much at all. That doesn’t mean they can make unjustifiable moves without being criticized, though. This was a decision without any strong supporting evidence, and it came back to bite Yost.

But Yost, being the players’ manager that he is, apparently just wanted to take the focus off of the real issue with the teams dreadful weekend: their offense.

Even after the slam, the Royals had a pair of opportunities to close the gap, or even tie the game, and no one came through yesterday. Normally four runs should be sufficient for a victory, but a team like the Royals must take advantage of as many scoring opportunities as possible, because they don’t always get that many chances.

On Friday night, the Royals scored only 2 runs against Allen Webster, who entered the night with an ERA and BB/9 of roughly 6. They mustered just 4 hits and 1 walk against a pitcher with a WHIP over 1.50. Webster is a guy the Royals’ September callups should’ve been able to dominate, and the team’s starters were completely stymied.

Thursday night, Clay Buchholz, who has an ERA over 5, struck out 7 Royals and allowed only 2 earned runs. Left-handed batters have a .346 wOBA against Buchholz this year. Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakas were a combined 1-9 against Buchholz on the night, coming up empty with men on base.

Those two losses put the Royals in a hole for the rest of the series, and it made Sunday’s loss all the more crushing. Had the offense come through against two very beatable pitchers, Yost’s blunder in the 6th inning yesterday would’ve just been a sour note on an otherwise positive weekend.

The offense floundering against poor pitching is not an excuse for Yost, nor should an ill-advised move by Yost be an excuse for the offense. This series loss has plenty of blame to go around, and pointing the finger at only one party is to ignore the negative contributions of the other.

This weekend was one to forget for the Royals, but while the memories can be forced to fade, the losses will remain. They’ve fallen into a 1.5 game deficit in the division, and with another series against the Tigers looming, the Royals need to take care of business against the White Sox. They can’t afford to fall any farther back in the race with less than 14 games left, if they hope to cash in on what has been their best season in decades.

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