Kansas City Royals: 3 stars from series win against Miami
The Kansas City Royals were able to take a series from the Marlins. Here were the three key players from the three-game set.
It was the battle for the third overall draft pick, or at least be in the driver’s seat for the draft slot, with both the Kansas City Royals and Miami Marlins separated by percentage points entering the series. Certainly, the Marlins could still get on a hot streak and pull ahead which would put the Royals in a really good position come next June.
The Royals came into this series playing arguably their best baseball of the season, winning two straight series over the Orioles and Tigers, and they were able to make it three straight taking two of three against the Marlins, winning their last 7-of-10.
They’ve gotten good starting pitching (outside of Glenn Sparkman) and timely hitting, highlighted by the return of Adalberto Mondesi to the lineup on September 1. Mondesi’s game is invaluable for the Royals as he’s able to get on base and steals bases at will.
Add to this Jorge Soler‘s career season and the emergence of Hunter Dozier and this offense has been able to put up some runs as of late. The Royals will head to Chicago to face a struggling White Sox team who have lost their last 8-of-10 entering Sunday.
Before we can look ahead, let’s look at the top three stars from the Marlins series.
1. Jorge Lopez
Jorge Lopez has generally struggled this season as a reliever turned starter after the Kansas City Royals traded Homer Bailey. Lopez made 7 starts for the team last year but has made 14 this season including Friday night’s start to kick off the series.
He’s made 35 appearances overall this year with a 6.23 ERA but he was really good in game one. Lopez tossed 6.0 innings of 4 hit ball with 5 strikeouts while not allowing any earned runs or walks. He needed 95 pitches to complete his outing and tossed 61 pitches for strikes.
He was super amped up in the fifth inning after Whit Merrifield received the relay from Brett Phillips and threw out Bryan Holaday, who was trying to tie the game up.
“Nice throw to Whit, one bounce, Vilo got it, tagged… We were fire!”
Including Friday, Lopez has a 6.26 ERA in his last 7 games (4 starts) with 23.0 innings and 22 strikeouts, 1.22 WHIP, and 7 walks. Friday’s game was against a bad Marlins offense so it’s tough to gauge if Lopez was really good or if it was the competition.
Lopez should be able to make a few more starts before the season is done so we’ll determine if this is him getting on the right track or just a fluke. The 26-year old could be moved back to the bullpen next season.
2. Ryan McBroom
What a story Ryan McBroom is becoming. The Royals have given Ryan O’Hearn every chance to win over the first baseman job but the team made a trade on August 31 to acquire McBroom, so they are obviously trying to get a look at other talent long-term.
McBroom, 27, slashed 0.315/0.402/0.574 with Triple-A Scranton when he was still with the Yankees organization. He also displayed a tremendous amount of power, launching 26 home runs and 66 RBI’s so the trade was an extremely low-risk, high-reward for the Royals.
He’s played in 5 games thus far and is slashed 0.375/0.444/0.500 with 4 RBI’s. His big hit came on Saturday night after Alex Gordon took a bases-loaded walk in the top half of the 7th inning to give the Royals a 3-1 lead. McBroom lined a bases-clearing double down the right-field line to make it a 6-1 lead and that was more than enough to secure the series win for the team.
I can only assume that the Royals will give him a lot of playing time this month as he can also play the outfield when O’Hearn needs his playing time.
McBroom is due to struggle at some point and it will be interesting to see how he adjusts back once the league figures him out. I could see the Royals giving him a minor league deal this offseason and every chance to win a permanent roster spot in Spring Training.
3. Danny Duffy
Danny Duffy made his second start since returning from the injured list. In his first start back, Duffy went 6.1 innings and allowed 3 earned runs while striking out 3 batters with just 1 walk. He induced 14 ground balls and needed just 90 pitches in his outing before being replaced.
On Saturday, Duffy danced around a little trouble as he allowed 4 free passes to Marlins batters but struck out 5 batters in 6.0 innings of work. He needed 95 pitches to get through 6 innings but he ended up getting a no-decision.
The offense came to life in the top half of the 7th inning backing Duffy’s start and taking the series. With all the talk about Duffy potentially moving to the bullpen next season to preserve his health and longevity, he’s making a strong case to stay in the rotation.
On the season, his ERA sits at 4.71 and he’s on pace for the lowest K/9 (7.83) since the 2015 season. Duffy is also allowing the highest HR/9 (1.52) of his career this season so perhaps a move to the bullpen where he’s pitching fewer innings would do him some good.
Similar to Ian Kennedy, Duffy could see a spike in his average fastball velocity tossing just one inning at a time. It will be interesting to see what the plan is going into the offseason but, obviously, if new owner John Sherman pursues starting pitching in free agency, we may very well have our answer.
Onto Chicago.