Not much to say about this. I’m loathe to harken back to the dark days, but I will say that in those times, the Royals were always interesting. Yes, even as an awful team there was always something that made them must-see baseball. That usually wasn’t a good thing, but still. This road trip, on the other hand, has been brutal to watch from the get-go. Not a single redeeming moment can be found here.
Futility Central
We are now at the point where notes are being mentioned about how poor the offense is playing. The Royals last scored on Wednesday, a span of 26 innings.
This was tweeted prior to the ninth inning.
.@Royals have now not scored in 25 consecutive innings, longest stretch since April of 2008. Joey Gathright scored that streak-breaking run.
— Dave Holtzman (@DHoltzy) May 1, 2016
Joey Gathright? Dark days indeed. It’s also the first time the Royals have been shutout in back to back games for quite some time.
Royals shutout in back to back games for first time since Sept 2013. Also happened in Seattle. Scoreless streak now at 26 innings
— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) May 1, 2016
September, 2013. Back before the Royals started playing in October. Sigh.
The Wild Ventura
You can’t win if you don’t score. And lord knows, the Royals don’t score these days. But the story of the game was Yordano Ventura’s struggles. It’s just one start and Ventura has been really good up to this point, but Saturday was dreck. He threw more change-ups than any pitch and abandoned his fastball for stretches. Probably wise because after serving a couple heaters over the heart of the plate in the first, he struggled to locate the deeper he got into the game.
For the game, just 49 percent of his fastballs (both four and two-seam) were strikes. Of the 35 fastballs he threw, he generated just two swings and misses. Whatever the issue, it just wasn’t working for Ventura on Saturday.
That strikezone plot looks a mess. When he missed, he missed by a lot. The Mariners had no problem choosing when to swing, as evidenced by only three pitches chased outside the strike zone.
Just a rough night.
WPA Play of the Game
The way the Royals offense has been wheezing, a three-run home run is kind of a killer. The WPA machine doesn’t know this, it’s agnostic to the Royals bats. Lucky WPA machine. Anyway, after Ventura issued a pair of two out walks in the bottom of the first, Kyle Seager tilted the Win Probability 22 percent in his team’s favor by depositing the baseball in the right-center stands.
Up Next
Sweet merciful baseball gods, this is the last game of the road trip and the final game the Royals play in the Pacific time zone this year. Ian Kennedy takes the mound on Sunday, but it’s not really about him, is it? Bats, bats, bats. Please hit. Please. We beg you.