Bad injury news hits KC Royals in Cleveland

One of the misfortunes the KC Royals can least afford as they fight for a spot in this season's playoffs has happened.

An injury just hit the starting rotation.

Not long before the first pitch of Wednesday's series finale in Cleveland, the Royals announced they've put Michael Lorenzen, acquired late last month in a trade deadline deal with Texas, on the 15-day Injury List. Lorenzen suffered what Kansas City TV analyst Joel Goldberg reports is a Grade 2 hamstring strain that could put the right-hander out of action for two or three weeks.

How big a blow Lorenzen's injury, which he suffered covering first base in the second inning of Tuesday night's victory at Cleveland, remains to be seen, but losing him for any amount of time could damage the club's postseason hopes. Lorenzen is 2-0 with a 1.85 ERA in five starts since joining the Royals, and seems to have settled nicely into manager Matt Quatraro's excellent rotation.

Now, though, his IL stay will keep him out of action until at least Sept. 12, the day after the Royals finish their current 20-game run with other contending clubs and a day before they begin a three-game weekend series in Pittsburgh.

What does Michael Lorenzen's injury mean for KC's rotation?

The Royals recalled Steven Cruz from Triple-A Omaha to take Lorenzen's roster spot. He's not a starter in the traditional sense, although Quatraro used him as an opener in four of the 10 games the right-hander pitched in for the club last season. He's primarily a reliever and returns to Kansas City after posting a 6-1, 3.35 ERA record in 44 relief appearances at Omaha.

Given all that, Cruz provides some flexibility to Quatraro. The KC skipper can again deploy him as an opener, but that seems somewhat unlikely considering the inconsistent state of the club's bullpen and the need to keep its pieces as fresh as possible down the stretch. Cruz is more valuable out of the bullpen, a role to which he's far more accustomed.

Keeping Cruz in the pen allows Quatraro to use Daniel Lynch IV in Lorenzen's spot until the latter hurler returns; although Lynch earned his first big league save with three scoreless innings in Monday's twinbill nightcap against Cleveland, most of his experience is out of the rotation.

The Royals will miss Lorenzen, and have to hope his hamstring injury won't keep him on the IL any longer than 15 days.

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