KC Royals' bullpen not exempt from blame in back-to-back devastating sweeps

After jumping out to an early 2-0 lead on Sunday, coming off a devastating shutout on Saturday afternoon sparking a never ideal but certainly necessary players only clubhouse meeting, fortunes looked to perhaps be turning around for the struggling Kansas City Royals.

It wasn't much but they managed to put runs across the board and Noah Cameron bounced back brilliantly from his first rough start as a major leaguer, so perhaps Royals fans thought that there was a shimmer of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

That light however turned out to be nothing more than a mirage, as they failed to squeak anymore runs across the board after Cameron left the game and it was the bullpen that was on the hook for all three Athletics runs that came across the board.

While it's been the inefficient offence and some uncharacteristically bad pitching performances from normally reliable starting arms that have stolen the headlines throughout the period of back-to-back sweeps, the bullpen needs to carry some of this blame as well, as made evident in Sunday's loss.

KC Royals' bullpen has not been as sharp as usual in back-to-back sweeps

The Royals entered Tuesday’s opener against the New York Yankees with the 10th best bullpen ERA in all of baseball at 3.44.

Despite being slightly banged up they still held one of the leagues most prominent closers in 2025 in Carlos Estévez, Lucas Erceg’s return was imminent and they possessed a band of breakout sensations to man the middle innings.

However, on multiple occasions this week we've seen this relief cops that's traditionally been such a key aid to the rest of this Royals squad look rather weak in some crucial situations.

The first instance was on Tuesday night, after Cameron left the game with runners on board in the sixth inning. The recently reliable Taylor Clarke would come in to mop up the mess, but looked like a shell of himself, not only allowing Cameron’s runner to come in to score but also four earned runs of his own – turning this game from a somewhat manageable four run deficit to a insurmountable nine-run hole in just 0.1 innings.

Then came Thursday's 1-0 loss in the series finale against the Yankees, where All-Star caliber reliever Lucas Erceg would make his return from the IL to surrender a single to the first hitter he faced, then later a walk and then an RBI-single to Paul Goldschmidt. A one-run outing from a reliever isn't the end of the world, but considering the stakes and the arm Erceg has become, it's a result that just can't happen.

Then Friday, it would be the godsend of a call-up from Triple-A in 2025 in Steven Cruz, who would allow the both runners he inherited from Michael Wacha to score along with one of his own. For those doing the math at home, that's three runs Cruz had his hand in letting across in a two-run loss - making his impact a real difference maker.

Finally, we shift to Sunday, where after Cameron got back on track going five innings of shutout ball, it only took to the next inning for all his hard work to be erased after John Schreiber surrendered a two-run homer in just 0.2 innings of work.

Then the usually lights-out Estévez was the one tagged with the loss after surrendering a ninth inning go-ahead home run in the ninth, only his second earned run surrendered since May 7.

Again, with an offense that scores more than three runs just once in a week, along with a starting staff that on three occasions out of six gave up five or more earned runs, it hardly spells a winning formula.

But as big as their pieces of the puzzle of misery are, they don't paint the whole picture. While the entire bullpen hasn't been at it's worst this week, the unit has been poor enough to warrant shouldering some of the blame.

If Kansas City looks to get back on track and salvage their season, it's clear it has to come from all fronts.