KC Royals: 3 big things to watch for against Oakland

Home from a rare winning road trip, the KC Royals enjoyed a day off Thursday before beginning their final homestand of the month tonight against Oakland.

Kansas City went 5-4 and won two of three series during their 10 days on the West Coast, taking two of three from the A’s and Angels after beating the Giants only once in three tries.

The journey gave the Royals their first back-to-back series wins of the season and those five victories enabled them to reach nine for the month; they need to win only one of six remaining June games to better their 9-20 May record.

That victory should come against Oakland. The A’s offered Daniel Lynch and Brad Keller little resistance in losing the first two games the clubs played last week, and Brady Singer pitched well enough to win before the bullpen didn’t in the series finale (more on that later). Keller (Saturday) and Singer (Sunday) are slated to face Oakland again this weekend.

And Zack Greinke makes his return to the mound tonight, one of three things fans should keep their eyes on against Oakland.

How will KC Royals starter Zack Greinke fare when he rejoins the rotation?

Greinke’s reunion with the Royals certainly hasn’t been what he or the club wanted. Although he started the season well—he had a 2.67 ERA through his first six starts and would have won a few games save for the poor run support he received—he gave up 19 runs in 18 innings over his next four starts and landed on the Injured List with a flexor strain and an 0-4, 5.05 ERA record May 30.

Now, two good rehab assignment starts at Triple-A Omaha later, the Royals feel he’s ready to return. He pitched four perfect innings in a four-strikeout, no-walk, five inning stint against Lehigh Valley June 12, then gave up three runs in seven innings against Iowa six days later. Greinke won both games.

He’ll battle Oakland’s Cole Irvin (2-4) tonight.

Will the KC Royals’ bullpen get on track this weekend against Oakland?

How bad is Kansas City’s struggling bullpen?

Pretty bad. Its 4.74 ERA and 1.50 WHIP are the worst in the American League. It’s given up more walks than any other pen in the league and has the AL’s worst OBA. It’s saved fewer games, and surrendered more runs, than any other AL bullpen; it’s also hit more batters than only two other clubs and given up the fourth most hits.

The bullpen also had too much to do with three of the four losses the Royals suffered on their just-completed road trip.

Starter Brad Singer, dramatically improved since rediscovering his form during a three-week trip back to Triple-A, deserved to win at San Francisco June 13—he’d yielded two runs and a pair of hits and fanned five in five innings when Manager Mike Matheny gave the game to Amir Garrett to start the sixth with the game tied. Garrett walked leadoff hitter Austin Slater, uncorked a wild pitch that moved Slater to second and, after striking out Brandon Crawford, coughed up an RBI single to Thairo Estrada that broke the tie for good.

Arodys Vizcaíno, like Garrett an offseason acquisition, gave up two runs in the seventh and Josh Staumont surrendered another in the eighth. The Giants won 6-2.

The pen failed Singer again a few days later. Trailing only 1-0 in Oakland after striking out four and walking none in 5.1 innings, and with the club’s first series sweep of the season at stake, Singer gave way to José Cuas with runners at second and third in the sixth. Unfortunately, Cuas, who’d given up only one run since making his big league debut May 31, gave up a three-run homer to Sean Murphy. The A’s won 4-0 to avoid the sweep.

The bullpen also figured in Kansas City’s 5-0 loss to the Angels Wednesday night, another defeat that spoiled the club’s chances for a sweep. It was, to be sure, a game the Royals couldn’t win as long as Shohei Ohtani remained in the game—the Angels’ amazing two-way player struck out 13 and only gave KC two hits and a walk in eight scoreless innings.

But because they’d managed only a run off starter Daniel Lynch and reliever Taylor Clarke through six, the Angels led by just that single run when Garrett took over for the Royals to start the seventh.

And once again, Garrett didn’t get the job done: he gave up a pair of RBI hits, allowing the Angels to extend their lead to three. Foster Griffin did the same in the eighth and KC lost 5-0.

Can the bullpen regroup against Oakland? It must if the Royals hope to continue the bit of success they’re having.