Royals Continue to Struggle

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat. Jean-Paul Sartre

Losing a game to the Boston Red Sox with Liam Hendriks on the mound is not the end of the world, but when doing it with the grace and style the Royals displayed, it sure feels like it.

For the 4th time in the last 6 games, the Royals lost. They do still cling to an ever so slim half game lead over the Detroit Tigers, but with a half inning makeup in Cleveland that looks like another loss, they are, for all intents and purposes, tied. They still manage to reside in the one position every Royals fan had hoped and wished they would be in, but with the slide of late, it feels more like a pipe dream than reality.

With a struggling offense, the Royals seemed unable to overcome a shaky Liam Hendriks who was filling in for Danny Duffy. Hendriks was mercifully pulled by manager Ned Yost after 2 and 1/3 innings in which he gave up 3 runs, 2 of them earned. After loading the bases and walking in a run, followed by another hit, Yost recognized the young Aussie did not have the pinpoint command he needs in order to succeed, and pulled him in hopes of keeping the ballgame within reach. He succeeded with Casey Coleman promptly came in and induced a double play to end the threat and the inning.

Royals relievers as a whole performed admirably in pitching this game in committee fashion, except for Aaron crow, who gave up 2 runs both of which were on board from walks. Once again, Crows inability to find the strike zone cost the Royals and put the game out of reach at that point considering the offensive woes.

Recent draft pick Brandon Finnegan continues to be a bright spot as he has now managed to retire all 8 major league hitters he has faced, coming in for 2/3 of an inning against the Sox and registering a strike out.

One time MVP candidate for the hearts of the Kansas City natives, Alex Gordon, once again had a dismal game in going 0-4 and failing to capitalize on opportunities to plate some much needed runs. After providing late game heroics in late August and vaulting himself into MVP conversations, he has fallen off sharply with the glances of the national audience starting to look his way. In the last 9 games, Gordon has batted .071/.278/.179 with 12 strike outs, and enough check swings that there is talk of it becoming the 4th flavor of Chex cereal. Alex has gone through spurts throughout his career, but the baseball gods have chosen a very unfortunate time for him to enter his latest slump.

The Royals seem to be at the peak of offensive production when old timers Alex Gordon and Billy Butler are able to drive each other in. While the problems with Alex are because of a slump, Butler has a completely different issue all together. Residing confortably inside Ned Yost’s doghouse, Billy has played in precisely 1 game since September the 5th. With Ned Yosts insistence on playing the hot hand, it seems that only applies if your name is not Billy Butler. During his stint as a fill-in first baseman, Billy was a big part in the resurgence of the Royals that saw them vault into first place. During that stretch of 29 games, he hit .288/.347/.450 and played well defensively at first base (especially considering the expectation). He has been rewarded with the bench.

While it is understandable given the superior defensive abilities of Hosmer (though he does have 4 errors in the 10 games since his return) as well as the consistently solid plate appearances we have seen by Willingham, it seems almost cruel for Billy to see his time decreased to this extent after years of playing for a loser.

Some things of note:

Nor Aoki has somewhat quietly been the hitter he was expected to be the last couple of months. Since August 1st, he has a .362 on base percentage, which has been a valuable asset at the leadoff position if it weren’t for:

Omar Infante decided his best contribution in the bottom of the first with nobody out against a struggling team and a pitcher on his own most likely to give up runs would be to SAC BUNT Nori Aoki to third after Aoki led off the game with a double. There are so many problems with this scenario to begin with, but if after an opposing pitcher gives up a double to lead off a game your best option is to then give away outs and play for 1 run, you have set the wrong lineup order. Omar Infante was brought to KC to HIT THE BASEBALL. Had we started the game off with the 7-8-9 hitters, it would be at least somewhat justifiable, but these are the hitters you have put in a position to receive the MOST AT BATS OF ANYONE ON THE TEAM….they should not be bunting in the first with nobody out, especially when your starter is Liam Hendriks and their guy has a 5+ ERA.

Eric Hosmer Continues to make very costly errors at 1b, he now has double the errors in the last 10 games that Billy had in the 29 he played at first.

Salvador Perez has 8 walks in his last 88 games, he has 11 home runs in that same span.



photo credit: Keith Allison via photopin cc

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