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3 big stretch run questions for the KC Royals

Kansas City faces some uncertainty as final playoff push begins.

By Mike Gillespie |
/ Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports
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After soundly beating Detroit 7-1 Thursday night, the KC Royals find themselves in a nice place. Now squarely in the postseason hunt instead of being on the outside looking in for too many seasons, Thursday's fourth straight victory boosted the Royals' record to 61-49, and with two months left in the regular season, they're just six games behind Cleveland in the American League Central. And if the campaign ended today, they'd own an AL Wild Card.

The club's reversal of fortune is at once startling and stunning, a turnaround of increasingly epic proportion. The work left to be done will be hard, but if done properly will give these refurbished Royals their first postseason action since they won the World Series in 2015.

Can they pull it off? Yes, especially if the answers to three big questions are positive. Let's see what they are.

Can Bobby Witt Jr. maintain his torrid pace?

The answer to this question is No, but it's a qualified No, a negative response with a positive flipside. Witt opened August Thursday by clubbing his 20th homer of the campaign with a double and two RBI thrown in for good measure. That in 23 July games he slashed .489/.520/.833, homered seven times, drove in 22 runs, and had a 170 wRC+ through Wednesday, means he'll be everyone's July player of the month.

That's a pace, though, that not even Witt can keep up for another two months. To maintain it asks and requires too much. But the bright news is this — Witt is so good (his .350 average leads the majors) that he'll continue, with a little help from Salvador Perez and perhaps another Royal or two, to carry KC offensively through their Sept. 29 regular-season finale at Atlanta.

Second question...

Will their bullpen improve for the KC Royals?

This may be the most important question of the three. Kanas City's relief corps has been questionable almost since the season opened and is a major reason the club isn't in first place.

Too high on its face, the Royals' collective bullpen 4.26 ERA is the fifth worst in the American League. Kansas City is the only AL club whose pen has fewer than 300 strikeouts. Its 1.39 WHIP and .257 OBA are better only than Chicago's. James McArthur, ostensibly the closer, leads the team with 18 saves but hasn't been as consistent as he needs to be, and no pre-trade deadline Royal seemed ready to step up to improve the spot.

There is, however, hope. With little time left before Tuesday's deal deadline passed, general manager J.J. Picollo convinced the A's to send him promising reliever Lucas Erceg for pitchers Will Klein and Mason Barnett, and outfielder Jared Dickey. In only his second big league season, Erceg was 2-3 with a 3.68 ERA and three saves for Oakand and, in his Royals debut Wednesday, he pitched a scoreless, two-strikeout eighth inning in the series-clinching win over the White Sox. Help should also come from Hunter Harvey, who the club traded for in mid-July.

And other relievers are pitching well. Sam Long has been excellent with a 2.35 ERA in 23 games. Only the five ERA-skewing runs he was charged with against Texas in late June seriously mar Ángel Zerpa's 45-game performance; he's 1-0, 3.40, and is becoming a reliable bullpen staple. Then there's the fairly resurgent Will Smith, who ended May with a 6.38 ERA but in 17 outings since has a 1.65 mark; in only three of those appearances has he been charged with a run.

One of the newest Royals also can't be forgotten. Acquired from the Rangers Monday, Michael Lorenzen can start or relieve and, his 17-13, 3.78 record in 278 career relief appearances suggests he could, if needed there, be a valuable piece of manager Matt Quatraro's bullpen. (More on Lorenzen in a moment).

And the final question...

Can the KC Royals fill the fifth spot in their rotation?

Few knew when last season ended that Picollo's offseason work would so significantly strengthen Kansas City's rotation. But it did, and handsomely.

Free agent signee Seth Lugo won his 13th game by limiting the Tigers to one run, four singles, and a walk Thursday evening; he's now tied for the most victories in the majors and his 2.57 ERA is the big leagues' third-best among starters. Brady Singer's 8-6, 2.88 ERA performance over 22 starts includes a 4-2, 2.27 July, and he's won four of his last five starts. While they haven't been consistently as good as Lugo and Singer, Michael Wacha and Cole Ragans continue to hold up their ends of the bargain.

Unfortunately, though, fifth starter Alec Marsh dropped out of the rotation when the Royals demoted him to Triple-A Omaha Tuesday; 7-7 with a 4.71 ERA at the time, his poor 5.68 June ERA, and the even worse 6.86 mark he posted in July, suggest he requires a fix he shouldn't be trying to find in a contending club's rotation.

Can the Royals fill the slot? Hopefully. Because Lorenzen is scheduled to start against the Tigers Saturday, it appears he'll get first shot at the new rotation vacancy. He owns a 28-31 record and 4.30 ERA in 87 career starts, and was 5-6, 3.87 in 18 starts for Texas before Monday's trade.

The Royals may choose to occasionally mix in an "opener" game, either component of which Lorenzen is equipped to fill.

Another option is Daniel Lynch IV — although he's given up 11 runs (one unearned) in 14 innings as a Royals starter this season, he's currently 7-0 with a 3.59 ERA in 17 starts at Omaha.

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