Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Edinson Volquez struggles in the first. The Royals bats go limp. Chien-Ming Wang eats it. The Royals lose by double digits.
Yep. The Royals two game winning streak comes crashing to an end in Tampa. I don’t know why I just don’t cut and paste these recaps. Or maybe I should just link to some already written. When the Royals are bad, they are putrid. Like I have to tell you this.
Find someone to hold you. Then continue.
First Is Worst
Another start, another rough and tumble first inning for Edinson Volquez. In his last outing against the Rangers, he stumbled to three runs. On Wednesday in Tampa, it was four.
The Rays were all over Volquez and his fastball in the bottom half of the frame. Leadoff batter Logan Forsythe tattooed a double at 105 mph. Kevin Kiermaier followed with a single that left the bat at 103 mph. Evan Longoria lined to right to bring home the first run at 99 mph. The big pain was brought by Steven Souza, Jr., who clobbered a middle-middle fastball at 107 mph around the left field fair pole for three runs.
Since the All-Star Break, the Royals are averaging 3.2 runs per game. The last time they scored more than three runs was July 27 at home against the Angels. In other words, this one was over early.
Two
That’s the number of hits the Royals offense mustered. That’s it. Two. A Salvador Perez single in the second and a Lorenzo Cain single in the sixth. They also drew three walks. Juggernaut.
I’m going to dig real deep here for a silver lining. Despite the massive volume of base runners (five! Remember?) the Royals didn’t hit into any double plays! Well, only one of those runners reached with less than two outs, but still… No double plays!
No double plays!
Awwww, forget it.
This offense has scored 58 runs in 19 games since the All-Star Break. That’s an average of 3.1 runs per game. And that’s rounding up. Seriously, it’s worse. Try 3.05 R/G. On this road trip, they haven’t scored more than four runs in a game. That’s seven games now they’ve been held to the mat and been force fed a shit sandwich.
Wang’d
Chien-Ming Wang serves a vital purpose on this team: To throw pitches when the game is out of hand. He also is supposed to keep the deficit under triple digits. And if he can ensure Drew Butera eventually enters the game, all the better. He succeeded in just two of those three tasks on Wednesday. Not good enough.
Miscellany
Prior to the game, the Royals promoted Billy Burns from Triple-A Omaha. Burns is wearing number 14. RIP Omar.
Up Next
Ian Kennedy tries not to surrender any long balls in a brunch edition of Royals baseball. First pitch is 11:10.
More errors than hits too!