Royals Report: 5 Things About Bizarro-Day Win

The Royals pulled out a bizarro-land victory in thirteen innings against the Atlanta Braves on Kendrys Morales‘ two-run walkoff home run to nail down a 4-2 win on Sunday.

Both the KC Royals and Braves dressed in throwback uniforms to honor Kansas City’s Negro League museum, with KC in Monarchs uniforms and the Braves wearing Atlanta Black Crackers. Many fans came “Dressed to the Nines” for the event.

Whew. What a marathon that would have been completely deflating if the Kansas City Royals had lost. Instead, the KC Royals used nine pitchers to pull within one game of .500 at 18-19. The Atlanta Braves fell to 9-27. The Royals also won their first series since April 22-24 over the Baltimore Orioles after losing five in a row.

About time.

In Sunday’s bizarro-day game, Wade Davis was the only KC pitcher to give up runs, blowing a 2-0 Kansas City Royals lead in the ninth inning. Every other pitcher held the Braves scoreless, including three gutty innings from lefty reliever Scott Alexander.

Danny Duffy opened the game as the starter, but lasted only three innings because he was on a strict pitch count. The KC Royals finally ended the ordeal when Kendrys Morales blasted a Jason Grilli pitch over the center-field wall.

On to my observations about the game:

Next: Danny Duffy

1). Danny Duffy Approached Start Like Relief Appearance

Danny Duffy made his first start of the 2016 season, after the KC Royals told him to focus on being a reliever in spring training. Duffy, opened the game throwing 97 mph gas.

Unsurprisingly, he struck out the side while allowing only a single.

Overall, Duffy lasted 3.0 innings while striking out five and walking two. He didn’t allow a run in a successful outing.

Despite the two walks, Duffy was aggressive and wasn’t nibbling like he did so often as a starter. With a strict pitch count of 50, Duffy lasted three innings to get the Kansas City Royals off to a good start on a day when manager Ned Yost knew he had to lean on his bullpen.

Kevin Kuprecht at Royals Review wrote an interesting article about how Danny Duffy had the stuff to be a dominant starter, but wasn’t using his pitches effectively. In short, Kuprecht concluded that Duffy needed to use the high fastball more along with locating his change-up low and away against right handed hitters more instead of low and inside.

In the first inning, Duffy did exactly what Kevin suggested to notch two strikeouts.

Hmmm. Nice piece Kevin!

Here’s to hoping that Danny Duffy can use a stint in the bullpen to turn himself into a monster as a starter. If Duffy can simplify his approach and keep throwing gas, he might get his pitch count down enough to last deeper into games. The interesting point will be to see how this season plays out. Will Duff-man remain in the rotation, or go back to the pen?

I think it will depend on how he performs over the next few weeks. Stay tuned Kansas City Royals fans.

Next: The Bats

2) Royals Bats Are Back In The Freezer

The KC Royals bats appeared to wake up in New York. They scored 17 runs in their last three games of the series and added five in the first game against the Braves. Could it be? Could the Kansas City Royals offense have broken out of their slump?

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Not so fast.

The KC Royals got shut out by Mike Foltynewicz, who came into the game with an 5.06 ERA. in a 5-0 loss on Saturday. On Sunday, the Kansas City Royals managed two whole runs against the immortal Matt Wisler.

That’s not very encouraging with the Red Sox on their way to Kansas City, who have been hitting better than the ’27 Yankees. Uhhh. Yeah. That’s not looking too good.  Stats would make you think this upcoming three game series is going to be ugly. Knowing the perverse nature of the game, the Royals pitchers will probably shut them down.

Kansas City Royals fans can only hope.

Of course, it will help that Lorenzo Cain will be back in the lineup after getting the day off on Sunday. Cain’s been swinging a hot bat after breaking out of a month-long slump to open the 2016 season. The KC Royals offense needs all the help they can get right now.

In the Kansas City Royals defense, a poor call at second base cost the team a run in the eighth when Alcides Escobar was ruled out at second base after driving in Jarrod Dyson with a single. Replay challenge failed to show “clear” evidence, though it appeared that Escobar beat the throw. After Escobar’s out, Alex Gordon followed with a double.

The Kansas City Royals stranded Gordon at third base after he advanced on a wild pitch with one out.

Sigh.

Yeah. They scored four runs. But that’s not very impressive in 13 innings.

Next: Eric Hosmer

3). Eric Hosmer Is Becoming A Superstar Before Our Eyes

Yes, I’ve been raving about Eric Hosmer all season. Both him and Mike Moustakas have truly matured as players their sixth season in the league. Moustakas has become the slugger that he promised to be as a prospect. Hosmer has become the all-around professional hitter who is a perfect no. 3 guy in the lineup.

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Hosmer had yet another two-hit game on Sunday, going 2 for 6 with a single, double, and the game’s first RBI. On the season, Hosmer is slashing a very impressive .336/.392/.536. If he continues to play at this level, it will be his first truly dominant season in major league baseball.

And yeah, that will make him a superstar after establishing himself as a clutch player in the post season by becoming the KC Royals all-time post-season RBI leader. Add in that he’s been the best CLUTCH player in baseball since his debut in 2011 according to Fangraphs.com’s metric.

The most impressive thing to me about watching Hosmer is how consistent and controlled he is at the plate. Gone are the wild, off balanced swings you would see from him upon occasion. If he continues to post good numbers, it will be the first time he’s enjoyed two good seasons in a row after yo-yoing between solid and suspect seasons at the plate ever since his rookie year in 2011.

Of course, the downside of his breakout is that he’ll probably become prohibitively expensive to resign. His agent is Scott Boras, and Boras has to be salivating about what he’ll be able to demand after the 2017 season.

Next: Base-running

4) Braves And Royals Swapped Sloppy Base-running 

The Royals and Braves cost themselves runs in back-to-back half innings, showing why both teams have been losing the last couple of weeks.

In the bottom of the sixth, Eric Hosmer hit a two-out double into the right-center gap. Kendrys Morales followed with a deep fly to the warning track, but Hosmer failed to return to the bag and tag up. Thus, he couldn’t advance to third.

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The failure to move up on Morales’ fly hurt the KC Royals when Salvandor Perez hit a shallow single to left field. Atlanta left fielder Ender Inciarte threw Hosmer out at home plate attempting to score from second.

Hosmer would have scored easily from third.

The Braves returned the favor in the top of the seventh inning. Second baseman Chase d’Arnaud led off with a double against Joakim Soria. Center fielder Mallex Smith popped-up on a bunt attempt, and then Kelly Johnson hit a grounder to the left side.

Inexplicably, d’Arnaud attempted to advance to third, only to get thrown out by KC Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar.

The buffoonery didn’t stop there. The Braves tied up the game against Royals closer Wade Davis, but Mallex Smith gifted an out to the Kansas City Royals by getting hung up between second and third after hitting an RBI single.

It was the first out of the inning and probably cost the Braves the lead and a win.

Next: The Baseball Gods