Royals series win is clouded by yet another Seth Lugo second-half blow-up start

While the Kansas City Royals will certainly be content to have picked up a series win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday after dropping their last two, there's one major element casting a cloud over what's been a solid start to a critically important 10-game homestand.

This of course is the performance of their current ace in the starting staff, Seth Lugo, who just suffered yet another blow-up start, which has been becoming somewhat an unfortunate second-half trend.

In just four innings of work in the series finale, Lugo surrendered seven runs (six of which were earned) off six hits and four walks with only a pair of strikeouts.

Now, while it may still be premature for Royals fans to panic, Wednesday's outing certainly raised the level of concern they may have over their newly extended arm.

Seth Lugo suffers another nightmare outing in the season's second-half

As mentioned earlier, this isn't Lugo's first rough of outing in recent weeks. Wednesday was his second consecutive start with Lugo surrendered seven runs, the third straight start he failed to go 5.0 innings and the third start since the All-Star break he's surrendered five or more runs.

Before the All-Star break he made a strong case to be considered one of the bigger All-Star snubs, having been on a pace that rivaled his AL Cy Young runner-up season a year prior. Through the first-half of the season, Lugo was sporting a 2.67 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and . 213 BAA.

However, Lugo entered this afternoon's contest with a 6.49 ERA, 1.67 WHIP and .299 BAA, so another seven run outing certainly didn't help right the ship by any means. This brought him up to a 3.77 ERA and 1.24 WHIP for the campaign, far more middle-rotation looking than the upper echelon starter he looked for his first season-and-a-half with the Royals.

He simply hasn't looked nearly as sharp as he usually does. Lugo has gone from sporting a 21.9% K-rate and a 7.7% walk rate pre-All-Star break to a 16.7% K-rate and 10.0% walk rate post.

It's not as if Lugo hasn't had cold stretches in the past. Both July and August of 2024 he sported ERAs above 4.50. That being said, the recent extension paired with the fact the Royals are in the midst of an uphill battle to try and reach the postseason, his struggles seem a bit more magnified this time around.

Thankfully for the Royals, Noah Cameron and Michael Wacha have stepped up in a major way in the second half to make up for Lugo's cold-stretch, but KC will hope for the sake of their season that Lugo can be the arm we've all seen since he arrived last winter.

He'll have a chance to get back on track next week when the Texas Rangers come to town for a four-game mid-week set that could have major Wild Card ramifications.