Mention Danny Duffy to a national audience and lots of times you hear the same words.
Workmanlike.
Gets it done.
Crafty. I personally take umbrage with this one, since it’s always applied to lefties and that’s unfair. You ever hear of a crafty righty? No, because those guys top out at Double-A.
Not exactly the stuff of legend (and also a reason why most Royals fans despise the national FOX broadcasts).
You know what is the stuff of legend? One-hitting the Rockies and putting the Royals in line for a much-needed series win.
Duffy struck out seven over six innings and made precisely one mistake—a 1-1 fastball to Nolan Arenado that was sent into orbit in the sixth inning and cut the Rockies deficit to one.
And… that was it.
Duffy was about as untouchable as Duffy gets, generating 13 swings-and-misses in his six innings—including all three strikes on a punchout of Jonathan Lucroy, the final foe faced by Duffy on the evening.
As for the offense—hey, they scored enough runs to win and they did so. Whit Merrifield manufactured the game’s first run all by his lonesome (with an assist from Lucroy), singling to open the game, stealing his 23rd base, advancing on a Melky Cabrera grounder and scoring on Lucroy’s passed ball.
Hosmer’s single in the fourth would score Cabrera, and then he’d come around on Salvador Perez’s double—Salvy was 2-for-3 in his return.
(What’s the word count here? 202? Well… crap… soldier on we should I suppose.)
The bullpen threw three innings of one-hit ball (the two walks weren’t optimal, nor were the five total for the game), but disaster may have struck in the ninth. Not in a game-changing way, but certainly for the long-term ramifications of the franchise’s playoff hopes.
After inducing a pair of groundouts to start the ninth, Lucroy lucked into a triple when Melky Cabrera’s diving attempt came up wanting—Lucroy’s first three-bagger since his heyday in Milwaukee.
That put the tying run on third, which was dangerous enough. Then Kelvin Herrera issued a four-pitch walk to Carlos Gonzalez. Then he followed that with a walk to Gerardo Parra.
I mean, something sure seemed off. This marked just the third time since the start of the 2016 season that Herrera walked multiple batters in an appearance. If that wasn’t enough, Nick Kenney and Dave Eiland came sprinting out of the dugout during Pat Valaika’s at-bat and removed Herrera from the game.
Discomfiting enough for you? No? Have some tweets from the postgame scrum.
Also from Perez: “I’m tight. I can’t feel my forearm. That’s what he told me.” https://t.co/KiZR7dAwBR
— Sam Mellinger (@mellinger) August 23, 2017
Kelvin Herrera told Salvador Perez that his arm felt tight. But Sal was alarmed by his 92 mph fastball. “I think he’s hurt,” Sal said.
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) August 23, 2017
Based on how this season is going, Kelvin Herrera has an oblique injury, needs thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, or fell through a barn roof
— Royals Review (@royalsreview) August 23, 2017
If Dan Iassogna calls an easy strike, Dan Duffy celebrates a no-hitter & Kelvin Herrera never has forearm tightness. Jerk.
— Derek Martin (@d2mart) August 23, 2017
(I’ll be honest, that last one stings a little.)
Ian Kennedy (the human equivalent to Connecticut Avenue in Monopoly) gets the chance Wednesday evening against Antonio Senzatela. I would probably need at least three guesses in your standard to four-to-five man police lineup to identify Senzatela, and even that might require some luck. 7:15 p.m. (CT) if you’re interested.