This one is going to leave a mark. A suboptimal start from Edinson Volquez. A relentless attack from the offense. And a late stumble in extras. To make matters worse, nearly every team the Royals are battling for pennant position won.
It was not a good night in Royalland.
Early Stumble
If you’re in to reading tea leaves or whatever the local fortune teller is dealing, you would have believed Tuesday night was going to be a struggle. Starter Volquez put runners on first and third with nobody out in the first, but was able to escape without damage. It was a tactic that is generally unwise – put runners on base first, try to get outs later – but that seemed to be the Volquez game plan. After the first, he again put the leadoff batter on in the second. Not content with leaving runners on, Aaron Judge took matters into his own hands and launched one to left-center for the first two runs of the Yankee night.
A walk and a double plated another run. In the third, Volquez upped the ante, allowing the first three hitters to reach on singles to load the bases. With the Royals starter on the ropes, somehow the Yankees failed to land the knockout blow, scoring only once on a sacrifice fly.
Volquez was mercifully removed from the game after back to back singles in the fourth. For the night, Volquez threw 85 pitches, recorded 10 outs and allowed nine hits. He walked two and struck out five. His command betrayed him with regularity, missing the target set by Salvador Perez and catching far too much of the plate. It’s not that the Yankees are a great offensive team. No, but they are a major league club full of big league hitters. Those hitters don’t miss those pitches.
It’s a continuation of a disturbing trend. While the Royals are red-hot in August, Volquez most decidedly has been the opposite. After Tuesday, Volquez’s August ERA bloated to 6.37 over six starts. His strikeout rate this month is 6.1 SO/9, which is well below both his career rate of 7.7 SO/9 and what he has posted over the last three seasons. (6.7 SO/9) It’s an ugly stretch of starting pitching, but perhaps the Royals will keep the leash at least a little long since in those six starts, they have picked up three wins. Not too shabby, all things considered.
The Comeback
Faced with the early deficit, the never-say-die Royals started chipping away. It started before Volquez was removed from the game. In the bottom of the third, Raul Mondesi picked up a single. That brought Jarrod Dyson to the plate who drove one to the gap in right-center. There are few things more exciting than a triple. It’s cliche, but it’s rooted in some damn good truth. In this case, it was an absolute joy to watch both Mondesi and Dyson blaze around the bases. It’s as if the 4×100 meter race was cut in half.
The next run came courtesy of a Kendrys Morales home run, ripped to right.
The Royals chipped away with another run in the fourth when Dyson wheeled around on a Lorenzo Cain double down the right field line.
Facing the Yankee closer in the eighth, the Royals plated their final run. It was a Royals Run, manufactured by Cain walking to lead off the inning. (Cue Denny Mathews, “Leadoff walks in the late innings always seem to come back to bite you.”) Cain swiped second and went to third on an error. After the courtesy Eric Hosmer ground out to second, Morales collected his second RBI of the night when his sacrifice fly brought home Cain with the tying run.
The ultimate result may have been frustrating, but you have to be encouraged by the life and the attitude of this Royals offense. Falling behind early, this team didn’t panic or lay down. These games count, and the bats underscored their importance on Tuesday. They never held the lead, and it’s unlikely to be consolation, but the bats made it damn close.
Late Fall
It started, like it always seems to with Joakim Soria, with a bleeder of a single. Soria came inside to his first batter, Brian McCann, and the pitch was fought off and dunked into left. An emergency swing on a good pitch. The next batter, Chase Headley, not so much. His single was ripped to center on the line.
It’s never easy with Soria on the bump and it looked like he would be able to get past the trouble after he whiffed the next two Yankee hitters. A curve and a splitter for the honors.
A wild pitch and a walk on what looked like a borderline pitch, but was actually well up out of the zone, loaded the bases. Soria likes to make things interesting, doesn’t he? Then, the worst possible of all outcomes. Jacoby Ellsbury falls behind 0-2, sees a ball, and then grounds one up the middle that deflects off Soria for the run that sinks the Royals.
We can debate whether or not a cleanly fielded ball would have saved the run and the Royals. Certainly, had Soria not gone to his knee and awkwardly attempted to get a glove on it, the third out would have been recorded without damage. Had Soria let the ball go through, would they have gotten the same result? Difficult to say. Mondesi was shaded toward the bag, the ball wasn’t hit that hard, and he certainly has the range. He probably could have beaten Gardner, the runner at first, to the bag for the force.
Who knows? All the hypotheticals in the world aren’t going to unscore that run. It happened. The Royals will deal with it.
The Royals drop to 6-2 this year in extras. They fall to three back in the Wild Card.
Up Next
The Royals look to win their eighth consecutive series at 7:15 Wednesday. With the Yankees nipping at their heels, just a half game back in the Wild Card, this one is huge.