Royals: Top 5 moments in March/April from 2019 season

The beginning of 2019 was not kind to the Kansas City Royals, but we still persevered to find the best moments for March and April.

As hard as it is to believe, the Kansas City Royals started the season with two wins and were in first place for a grand total of three days. Then the wheels came flying off on March 31st with a 6-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox. That would begin a 10-game losing streak and April ended on a 2-8 slide. All told, a .310 winning percentage for the opening month(s) would essentially knock any hopes for a decent season off the map.

By the end of the day on April 29th, the Royals stood nine and a half games out of first place already. The team was not getting blown out of all these games as seven of the twenty losses were by two runs or less. There were also leads in many of these games that a struggling bullpen could not hold. The lack of quality arms would plague the team throughout the year though, save for a few players.

One of the most exciting moments of the month was Brad Keller dotting a fastball to the Chicago White Sox’s Tim Anderson backside after he did theatrics following a home run in his previous at-bat. The two teams have never been the best of friends and this incident at least showed the Royals still had fight for a team not producing many wins.

It the midst of all the pain and suffering Kansas City Royals fans went through, some positive individual and team achievements did occur. We take time to celebrate even the smallest of victories as we enter the holiday season.

Moment #5: 100th major league double

For a player entering just his fourth major league season, it seems that many of Whit Merrifield‘s accomplishments have a historical significance to them.  On April 12th, a double hit in a game that stopped a Kansas City Royals 10-game skid was no different.

A Friday night crowd of only 11,950 showed up at Kauffman Stadium to watch a Royals team that was already trying to stay relevant in a baseball season that was only a couple of weeks old.  The home team put the game away early with a six-run first inning that chased starter Carlos Carrasco out of the contest with only two-thirds of an inning pitched.

Merrifield recorded his milestone in the bottom of the fourth off of Tyler Olson.  He took a pitch deep down the right-field line and ended up on second base for the 100th double.  The ball ended being auctioned for $205 a month later.

It was a two-bagger that was not only the 100th of his career but another step to the second season in a row that would see him hit over 40 doubles.  By the time the 2019 schedule closed out, Merrifield would end up with 138 in his career and in 24th place all-time for Royals players. Everyone above him has at least 100 more games played and he could easily crack the top 10 if he is still with the organization for a couple more years.

Moment #4: Major league debut

One moment that undoubtedly sticks out in a player’s career is when he makes his major league debut.  Often times it is after several years spent in the minors working his way to get a chance to prove himself at the highest level.

Kelvin Gutierrez took the field of a big-league stadium for his first career appearance on April 27th at the friendly confines of Kauffman Stadium.  It was against the Los Angeles Angels and the Kansas City Royals had lost six of their prior seven contests.

Gutierrez was placed at third base and batting seventh just behind Jorge Soler.  As baseball is known to do, he was put on the spot in the first inning with a ground ball from Albert Pujols that Kelvin cooly turned into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.

His first at-bat came in the second frame against Jaime Barria and drew a four-pitch walk.  His next plate appearance was even better as he lined a single to left field and drove home Ryan O’Hearn and Soler for his first hit and two RBI’s.

The rest of the game was uneventful for Gutierrez but going one for three, driving home two runs and recording a putout with two assists and no errors is not a shabby way to start your career.  He bounced around between Omaha and Kansas City and ultimately had his season cut short by an injury.  In 20 major league games, he produced a .260/.304/.356 slash.

Moment #3: Walkoff leads to a home sweep of Cleveland Indians

By all accounts, it had already been a great weekend for the Kansas City Royals.  On Friday they had stopped a ten-game losing streak and with a victory on Saturday they had already guaranteed a winning series against Cleveland who came to KC with an 8-4 record.

The Royals had cut their games behind first-place from six to four and a half in those two games and it seemed like they were getting their mojo back with 8-1 and 3-0 victories over the Indians.  Taking on Corey Kluber would be a tough task and when Cleveland lit up Jakob Junis in the first inning to the tune of three runs it was going to be tough to battle back.

Battle back they did, though, as Lucas Duda and Whit Merrifield clubbed home runs in the second inning and then Duda and Chris Owings (yes those two!) walked in runs in the third and the Royals took a 6-3 lead.  They also chased Kluber out of the game before he could go three full frames.

In the fourth, the Indians scratched out a couple of runs to close the gap to one run.  Cam Gallagher would bunt home Hunter Dozier in the fifth and Soler would hit one of his season record bombs in the sixth to put the Royals on top 8-5.

Richard Lovelady and Jake Newberry could not hold the lead in the seventh and the score ended up knotted at eight going to the bottom of the ninth.  O’Hearn leads off with a walk, Terrance Gore pinch runs and steals second plus advances on a throwing error. Dozier calmly slaps a single to left field and the Kansas City Royals have their first walk-off win of the season off of three-time All-Star closer Brad Hand.

Moment #2: Homer Bailey has his first dominant start of the year

Homer Bailey‘s salary in 2018 with the Cincinnati Reds was $21 million but the Kansas City Royals acquired him for a song and dance to see if he could provide value and possibly be a trade piece mid-season.

Bailey was a minor league invite to Spring Training and no guarantee to make the team.  His performance in Arizona was enough to earn a spot on the big league club and he made his Royals debut on April 3rd.  The first two starts did not go very well and he came into the April 13th meeting with Cleveland at 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA.

Tapping into the success he had in prior years, Bailey spun magic on this day retiring 14 of the first 15 batters he faced with five punchouts.  After a walk and double consecutively in the top of the fifth, Baily sat down another seven in a row.

After 102 pitches, Ian Kennedy and Wily Peralta relieved Bailey and proceeded to retire the Indians down 1-2-3 in their respective innings.  Homer’s final line was seven innings pitched, two hits surrendered, two walks allowed and six strikeouts.

It was his first win as a member of the Kansas City Royals and was the beginning of a nice first half of the season that allowed KC to flip him to Oakland for a minor league prospect.