Kansas City Royals: Reactions to seeing the team live

As a Kansas City Royals blogger living in Detroit, I only get to see the team play live a handful of times a year. My first glimpse at the 2019 team came during the Tigers Opening Day, where the home team prevailed in a close victory.

This was a day where Alex Gordon hit a homerun, Whit Merrifield continued to prove he can hit, and I even got a (short) glimpse of Kyle Zimmer. There was a lot to take in when getting to assess this Kansas City Royals team with my own eyes for the first time.

While there are a lot of things I could say, there is one thing that stuck out more than anything. And it is something that has been alarmingly obvious for the last two seasons. This bullpen is…let’s say sub-optimal.

Jakob Junis had to settle in, but overall he kept the team in the game, and that is all that can be asked oh him. He handed the game over to Zimmer tied at three. From there, it got bad. And, of course, by bad I mean really bad.

Look, this is one outing for a guy who has been nothing but reliable so far. I am not calling for anything, but the Zimmer I saw can best be described as the Mayor of Struggletown. By my count, he spiked at least three pitches in the dirt on his way to walking the bases loaded. Those were the only three batters he would face.

It was these events that led to the eventual loss of the game. What I saw from Zimmer is not even close to the guy that forced his way on to the roster. Things will change.

This is not to overshadow another big issue, and that is the lack of contact. Spencer Turnbull struck out 10 batters in his six innings. This is not to take away from his performance, to be honest he was great. His slider was deceptive and his curve was filthy. But the Royals need to put bat on ball.

For a team built around speed, Merrifield was the only guy posing any threat on the bases. Adalberto Mondesi struck out in three of his four at bats. Billy Hamilton got a hit, but not until the ninth inning.

Overall, the Kansas City Royals lineup struck out 12 times. The only players not to fall victim were Gordon, Ryan O’Hearn, and Martin Maldonado.

Official Evaluation

I could mention the two errors, one of which allowed Josh Harrison to advance to third on an attempted steal of second, but to me those are the two things that stood out the most.

Outside of Zimmer, Kevin McCarthy and Brad Boxberger looked good out of the bullpen. The only asterisks being McCarthy walking the first batter he faced with the bases loaded. However, I cannot be naive to the face that the relief core has struggled. This is a unit, and one of the members of the collective struggled mightily.

And for a team boasting this much ability to steal bases they need to get on base. Between the speedy trio of Merrifield, Mondesi, and Hamilton, they went 3 for 13 (.230)with five strikeouts. Led by Merrifield, who got two hits including a triple.

I’m not saying they need to combine for .500, but they need to hit, walk, bunt, or do something. The heart of what I am saying is that I never got the sense that this was a fun team to watch because of their speed during that game. THAT would appear to be an issue.

The Tigers are not a great team. That being said, with Zimmer’s inning erased, the Kansas City Royals could have pulled this out. Unfortunately that is what sucks about this small sample size that I get.