Monday’s depressing 6-5 loss to the Astros makes four straight one-run losses and 11 losses overall in the last 14 games. The Royals now are looking up at .500 — they are 20-21 — for the first time since the season’s first week.
The bigger issue Monday for the Royals, beyond a 6-5 loss to Houston, was the status of catcher Salvy Perez’s right hip. Perez left the game shortly after slamming into a post at the Houston dugout while pursuing a foul pop by J.D. Martinez in the fifth inning.
The Royals suffered their fourth straight one-run loss Monday night — they’re now one game under .500. After the game, manager Ned Yost said that starter Jeremy Guthrie had struggled with command, finding the right arm slot and keeping the ball down. Guthrie walked three, two of them scored, and the Royals lost this one 6-5.
Forty games in, approximately one-fourth of the way through the season, and the Royals are 20-20 after suffering a weekend sweep in Oakland. Let’s get this out of the way: It was a brutal weekend. Three one-run losses after holding early leads in each game. The quarter point in the season is when teams traditionally step back and take a hard look at themselves. And if Bob Dutton’s latest Q&A is any indication, fans are doing that, too.
The young third baseman, lugging a paltry batting average at the All-Star break in his first full major-league season, felt lost and dejected. Then George Brett and his hitting coach, Charlie Lau, put together a plan, one that included mechanical adjustments and fundamentals but emphasized the mental approach, something Brett says can help current Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas, mired in a one-for-34 skid at the plate.
Services for former Royals broadcaster Fred White, who died on May 15, will take place on May 28 at the Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village.
The script changed Sunday for the Royals, but not the ending as they concluded a three-game weekend pratfall in the East Bay with a 4-3 loss to the Oakland A’s.
After Sunday’s crushing 4-3 loss to the Oakland A’s, Royals manager Ned Yost acknowledged he will “probably” will pull the eighth-inning duty away from struggling reliever Kelvin Herrera.
The Royals should know why the city they play for is suspicious. Nothing personal, guys, but Alex Gordon and Sal Perez and especially James Shields and Jeremy Guthrie might want to know why a fan base starved to watch a winner is watching their best team in 20 years like it’s a wild grizzly bear.
While the Royals’ rotation is much improved over recent seasons, one run isn’t often going to be enough. It was Ervin Santana who paid the price Saturday night for failing to pitch a shutout in a 2-1 loss to the Oakland A’s.
The questions to Royals manager Ned Yost Saturday afternoon concerned third baseman Mike Moustakas, his ongoing struggles and how patient the Royals were willing to remain and for how long.
Roughly forty games into Kansas City’s season, it’s time to make some assessments of this team’s advantages and its shortcomings.
James Shields continues to pitch like the No. 1 guy the Royals expected when they acquired him in that big off-season deal from Tampa Bay. And the Royals continue to waste his efforts. Shields gave up two runs Friday night in eight innings but only found more disappointment when the Royals’ attack again went quiet in a 2-1 loss to the Oakland A’s at the O.co Coliseum.
Outfielder Jarrod Dyson is expected to miss two-to-four weeks after being diagnosed Friday in Kansas City with what trainer Nick Kenney termed “a mild high ankle sprain.” Dyson, 28, suffered the injury in the eighth inning Wednesday when he scaled the center-field wall at Angel Stadium in pursuit of a Mike Trout homer against Kelvin Herrera.
Outfielder David Lough feels far more at ease in this, his second trip to the big leagues. He joined the Royals prior to Friday’s series opener against the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum.
The Royals' outfield could be getting a new look as soon as Friday night. All signs point to the Royals putting outfielder Jarrod Dyson on the disabled list because of an ankle injury he suffered Wednesday at Anaheim when he climbed the wall attempting to catch a Mike Trout home run.
Billy Butler raised his average 40 points, from .228 to .268, by going eight for 13 in three games against the Angels. His output included three doubles, a home run and nine RBIs.
A seven-run third inning and an eight-run lead and, still, it seemed like the Royals had to hang on all night Wednesday before securing a 9-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Outfielder Bubba Starling left his Low-A team in Lexington on Wednesday and traveled to Kansas City, where he may have Lasik surgery. Starling said he has had trouble seeing the ball at night.
Everybody loves the big pitching matchups — your ace faces their ace — but those games are toss-ups, and either team could win. Then there are the games you should win and can’t afford to lose; not if you’re going to put together a winning record. This was a game the Royals should have won and did. Beating up on bad teams is what good teams do.
