Kyle Zimmer passes first test in his return to the Royals
Unlike the start of the season which brought so much build-up and anticipation of Kyle Zimmer’s Royals debut, his return to the majors came on such short notice that he barely had a chance to catch his breath.
He arrived at Kauffman Stadium in the second inning of Saturday night’s 9-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians. Zimmer, who’d been with the Triple-A club in Omaha, filled the roster spot opened by the trade that sent reliever Jake Diekman to the Oakland Athletics prior to the game.
After getting to the ballpark after the game started, Zimmer quickly prepared and found himself in the game a few innings later. He pitched two scoreless innings, the seventh and eighth, and allowed a pair of hits and struck out two without a walk.
“I didn’t really think about anything, which is good,” Zimmer said. “I didn’t really have to be nervous or anything like that. It was just get here as fast as I could, get my uniform on and get in the game.”
Zimmer, a former fifth overall draft pick (2012), spent six injury-plagued seasons in the minors before he took last season off to focus entirely on rehab with Driveline. He finally reached the majors and made his debut with one scoreless inning on March 31.
Unfortunately, Zimmer battled inconsistent command — five walks in two outings that totalled one inning — and he went back to the minors on April 8.
While with Omaha, Zimmer made 34 appearances including 12 starts in the role as an “opener.” He posted a 4.38 ERA with 45 strikeouts, 32 walks and 42 hits in 49 1/3 innings. Opponents batted .230 against him and he recorded a 1.50 WHIP.
Against the Indians, Zimmer showed a fastball that touched 98 miles per hour. He worked around one double in each inning.
“I fell behind a couple guys, but I was able to work back in,” Zimmer said. “I’ve been working a lot on staying consistent mechanically with my front side. I was able to make one- or two-pitch adjustments instead letting it roll over.”
Since June 4, the Indians have been on a tear and they’ve ranked among the league leaders in several categories during that stretch.
They entered Sunday afternoon’s game ranked third in the majors in OPS (.837) and slugging percentage (.497), fourth in batting average (.297) and runs per game (5.53) and fifth in on-base percentage (.340).
“I liked what I saw,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I was like, okay, I’m going to try to bring Zimmer in here. I want to see what he does against this lineup because this lineup has obviously been hot. He handled them pretty good.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2019 at 1:31 PM.
