Kansas City Royals: Jake Junis roughed up by Indians again

Jake Junis has the worst stats against the Cleveland Indians. It was more of the same last night for the Kansas City Royals’ starter.

Players Weekend is upon us once again but with a slight twist this year. The Kansas City Royals were donning the all-whites last night as the Cleveland Indians wore the all-black uniforms. In the past, the jerseys had been somewhat close to their respective teams’ colors but Major League Baseball decided to simplify things this season.

However, the pitchers wearing white jerseys were required to wear black hats to allow for opposing batters to see the ball better coming out of their hand. Well, perhaps the Royals should have lobbied to wear white hats because Jakob Junis was roughed up again by the Cleveland Indians.

The almost 27-year old Junis lasted just 4.0 innings while allowing 4 earned runs, 2 walks and 1 home run. The home run came off the bat of Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the second inning, a no-doubter to boot. Junis threw a total of 94 pitches but only 57 of them were for strikes. In 10 career starts (11 appearances), Junis has a 6.05 ERA against the Indians, which is by far the worst against any team with similar starts.

After a rough first half of the season in which he had a 5.33 ERA, Junis has been much better since the All-Star break (3.45 ERA). That was until he faced the Indians last night. The former 29th round draft pick looks like a placeholder in the rotation until help arrives which might not be until the 2021 season.

Junis’ groundball-to-flyball ratio is near 1:1 but when batters make contact, they hit the ball hard. Last season, he allowed the third-most home runs in baseball (32) and was only behind Dylan Bundy and James Shields. He’s not on quite as bad of a pace as last season but it’s not great either.