Royals and starting pitcher Jorge Lopez are hoping for bounce-back effort Saturday
Royals pitcher Jorge Lopez recognized a loss of velocity in his first start of the season on Sunday in Kansas City. It wasn’t due to a physical ailment or fatigue. Those extra 2-3 mph he “missed” on his fastball were put on ice by Mother Nature.
After the team’s off-day on Friday, Lopez (0-1) will try to bounce back and stop the Royals’ four-game losing slide when the team resumes its series against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Saturday afternoon.
The skid started with Lopez’s loss on a 40-degree day Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, but the right-hander could luck out in regard to the weather on Saturday. While the temperature at first pitch on Thursday only got up to 39 degrees, as of mid-day Friday, the forecast called for temperatures to reach the mid 50s by first pitch on Saturday.
That doesn’t mean Lopez’s cold-weather chronicles are over. Kansas City temperatures could still be frosty when the club returns, particularly for night games, and the Royals will play road games in both Chicago and New York this month.
“We’re going to be alright,” Lopez said confidently on Thursday.
Lopez (0-1) gave up four runs in five innings in his first start, including back-to-back loud and long home runs off the bats of Peter Alonso and Jose Abreu.
Asked about the weather following that start against the Chicago White Sox, Lopez gritted his teeth momentarily before he acknowledged the weather played a part and that he didn’t feel the same arm speed during his outing.
“I’ve gotta do something, some yoga, some stretching, keeping warm,” Lopez said. “Those things, I did (them) the last time, but I think I could’ve prepared a little bit more and feel (more) loose with my arm.”
The reason Lopez speaks with such certainty about things being better going forward could be that he endured similar struggles before reaching the majors. And he still got here.
“I remember 2016 was one of the worst years I’ve had,” Lopez said. “Everything was really cold. I get warm, the first inning was really good. The second inning, I’d come back and get shut down right there.”
Lopez, a member of the Milwaukee Brewers’ farm system in 2016, began that season at Triple-A Colorado Springs. He didn’t pitch five full innings in a start until the second week of May. He piled up pitch counts of 80 or more each outing but couldn’t get deep into the game.
A native of Puerto Rico, Lopez spent 2013 in Low-A Wisconsin, but the club used the piggyback method of starters throwing artificially abbreviated outings with another starter scheduled to pitch behind them out of the bullpen. Lopez doesn’t regard that as a season as one in which he was a true starting pitcher.
While Lopez called 2016 one of the worst seasons of his career, he also considers it one of the best learning experiences he’s had, from the standpoint of preparing his body, dealing with cold weather and adjusting to pitching in the higher elevations common in the Pacific Coast League. Pitchers get different spin on the ball in such environments.
“I’m going to find a way,” Lopez said of dealing with the cold. “There’s a lot of types of exercises we can do. I think our preparation is really good. The direction all the coaches, all the training staff are giving us is really good. We’ve just got to follow it and find a way to keep it warm and be ready every inning.”
Getting through cold-weather outings certainly isn’t a problem that’s unique to Lopez. Reliever Kyle Zimmer appeared to struggle with the conditions on Thursday, and it’s one of many adjustments the minor leagues force pitchers to make on their way to the majors.
Royals veteran pitcher Ian Kennedy, who came up through the minors in the New York Yankees’ system, pointed to last season as one of the coldest starts to a season he’s ever experienced. He found his start in Progressive Field in Cleveland particularly chilling, with the temperature in the 30s.
“By the fifth inning I could feel my legs and really my hamstrings starting to get a little tighter and tighter and tighter, your lower back,” Kennedy said. “You’re trying to throw more pitches to try to get warm in between. That’s was like the coldest I’ve ever been when I can feel my body starting to get colder and colder.”
Kennedy said he spent a lot of time inside while the Royals were batting, doing jumping jacks and any other exercise he could think of to work up a sweat without getting too tired. He also got stretched repeatedly by head trainer Nick Kenney.
Having played professionally since 2006, Kennedy has learned plenty of tricks of the trade — constantly moving to keep the body temperature up, camping out near the heaters in the dugouts, using ointments like Red Hot on your back to keep those muscles loose — but the biggest tip is simply to attack hitters.
“As a pitcher, you look at it as, ‘Who is more uncomfortable right now?’ They are,” Kennedy said. “I’m the one moving. They’re the one standing there. If they miss-hit the ball, it’s going to hurt like heck.
“You can see some of the guys when they get jammed, they’re like, ‘Ahhh,’ and they sit there. They might take two or three pitches or it may take them two or three pitches or take them a little bit to get their hand feeling back.”
So if all else fails, just find a way to get the ball over the plate often enough to make the hitters swing the bat.
“You just make sure you throw strikes,” Kennedy said.
