Absolutely. There’s still plenty of time for the Royals to makeup ground in the AL Central. Yet I can’t help but think this series is an example of why it’s exactly so difficult to make inroads against a division leading team when going head to head. On Friday, the Royals rolled into Chicago 4.5 games back. They win two of three, yet leave town 3.5 games behind. Yes, that’s a net gain of a game and at this point you don’t get irritated when things don’t go your way. A game is a game is a game. It may seem small potatoes at the moment, but maybe we feel differently about this series come September.
Still Looking For The Offense
Carlos Rodon features a two-seam fastball with some sinking action and compliments it with a hard slider that generates more than it’s fair share of swings and misses. In other words, he’s the perfect pitcher for the opposition to throw against the Royals to stymie their bats. It worked on Sunday.
The Royals swung and missed at four of his 35 sliders, but seemed to be off balance for most of the afternoon. In other words, it was a very Royal offense.
They strung together four singles in the second, but sandwiched two on each side of a double play, so all they were able to get was a solitary run. Their second and final run came after Alex Gordon went first to third on a Paulo Orlando double and Omar Infante drove home Gordon with a sacrifice fly. I know. I was shocked Infante was able to drive the ball far enough to get Gordon home.
For the three game series, the Royals scored just eight runs. Yet they won two.
Fire Goes Awry
Obviously, the starting pitching has improved from the cold spell from the end of April that carried over into May. After a promising start earlier in the week, Yordano Ventura struggled once again with his command on Sunday. He walks four and struck out only three, continuing a disturbing trend of more walks than strikeouts. His previous start kept the SO:BB ratio tilted in his favor, but barely. For the year in just under 50 innings Ventura has walked 33 and struck out 34. That’s not ideal. Not at all.
While the command was an issue, he’s not helped by pitch selection. On Sunday, Drew Butera was behind the plate. In a key situation against Melky Cabrera in the fifth inning, Butera called for three consecutive fastballs. Ventura delivered all three up in the zone. Cabrera didn’t miss the third one.
The velocity was fine. A couple starts ago, PitchF/X was classifying a bunch of his slower fastballs as cutters. No such problem on Sunday. His two-seamer was averaging 96 mph and his four-seamer was just a touch under 96 mph. The issue now, aside from rough command, is his inability to miss bats. Of the 103 pitches he threw against the White Sox, only three generated a swing and a miss. Talk all you want about the Royals having a solid defense so the pitchers should let their fielders do some work, but if you can’t miss bats, your positioning yourself as future fifth starter material. And that’s not where the Royals or Ventura want him to be.
Stay Hot, Paulo
Checking the Dayton Moore Transaction History at the old site, we see Orlando joined the Royals in a trade with the White Sox on August 9, 2008. All it cost was Horacio Ramirez. That seems like a long time ago. It was a long time ago. Maybe Orlando harbors some sort of grudge against his old club. I’m fine with that. His performance in Chicago was certainly enjoyable this weekend. He collected two more hits on Sunday and for the series was 5-8 with two doubles and three runs driven in.
And he also made a nifty play in right on Sunday that MLB won’t allow me to embed here for reasons unknown. Trust me, though. It was a fine catch at the wall.
Was The Tarp OK?
A scary moment in the seventh when Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas collided going for a foul pop-up near the tarp. Gordon’s knee appeared to hit Moustakas’ thigh, but Gordon took the worse or the collision when his momentum spun him around and carried him to the tarp. His back slammed into it and he appeared dazed for a few moments. He was able to finish the inning (naturally), but he was lifted for a pinch hitter when his spot came around in the lineup in the next half inning.
Officially, the Royals say he passed concussion tests, but strained his wrist and is day to day.
Up Next
The Royals travel to Minnesota to open a three game series against the Twins. The Twins have lost seven of their last 10, have only four wins in 21 games against AL Central competition so far, and are 14.5 games out of first place. Time for the Royals to stay on the right track.