Kansas City Royals starting rotation shuffled again, Hernández gets the ball Friday
The shake-up of the Kansas City Royals starting pitching rotation didn’t end when manager Mike Matheny unexpectedly went to Carlos Hernández in relief last weekend.
Injuries, call-ups and another unexpected relief outing have forced more reconfigurations this week and for this weekend’s series with the AL Central Division-leading Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium.
Hernández will start Friday’s series opener followed by left-hander Daniel Lynch on Saturday and right-hander Brady Singer on Sunday, Royals manager Mike Matheny said after Thursday night’s game.
Hernández’s most recent outing came in relief last Friday night. He threw 5 2/3 innings in relief of Kris Bubic. In his last six games (five starts), Hernández has a 3-0 record with 1.73 ERA, a .194 batting average against, 28 strikeouts and seven walks in 36 1/3 innings.
Lynch and Singer are each lined up to make starts one week from the day of their previous start.
Matheny hadn’t announced a pitching rotation for this weekend because there were still several balls up in the air.
Last week ended with one of the rotation’s two workhorses, Brad Keller, going on the IL with a lat strain. Then the Royals started this week by recalling Jakob Junis and starting him on Tuesday and then recalling Jackson Kowar and starting him on Wednesday.
Kowar pitched six innings and turned in a quality start in his first start since June.
Mike Minor, initially listed as the starter for Tuesday, had his start pushed back multiple days as he dealt with some late-season shoulder fatigue.
Junis went on the injured list the day after his first start back, and the Royals seemingly complicated matters more by using Bubic in relief for two innings on Thursday night.
“It’s more of a shift to just get up and go attack right away,” Bubic said of being used in a relief role on short notice. “Don’t have time to sit on anything too much, so just go out there and do your best with what you have for as long or as short as it may be and go from there.”
Bubic allowed one run on a hit and two walks in two innings of relief. A leadoff walk came back to bite him in his second inning.
His fastball, which has averaged 93.3 mph this season, reached as high as 96.4 on Thursday.
Following Thursday’s game, Matheny said Bubic would most likely get his next start on Monday.
“Whatever situation it was going to be this week, I was ready for,” Bubic said. “So if this lines me up for Monday, then I’ll be ready for Monday. You can kind of treat this as an extended bullpen a little bit. The body will feel normal again and get back on the routine starting Monday.”
