Daniel Lynch overpowers A’s as Kansas City Royals pick up second straight road win
For one inning, it looked like Kansas City Royals left-hander Daniel Lynch might have run into too much trouble. Perhaps on a chilly night in the Bay, the back ailment that hampered him in a start earlier this season had tightened up. Or maybe the opposing hitters had finally seen enough of his repertoire to get timed up.
Well, Lynch put all that wondering to bed as he limited the Oakland Athletics to one run despite having the bases loaded and escaped with a one-run lead.
From there, he thoroughly shut down the Athletics and put the Royals on the path to a 5-1 win in front of an announced 8,772 in the first game of a three-game series at the Oakland Coliseum on Friday night.
The win gave the Royals (22-41) back-to-back road wins for the first time this season.
Lynch struck out a career-high 10, including separate stretches of three consecutive strikeouts and four consecutive strikeouts. His slider was a critical weapon. He got the Athletics to swing 19 times at that pitch, and they missed on 12 of those swings.
“It was kind of weird because when I realized I didn’t have a lot of pitches to work with, I actually started striking more guys out,” Lynch said. “Because I was just attacking, knowing that I couldn’t get deep into counts. So I think that would probably be the biggest difference and something I would definitely take away.
“When I knew I had fewer pitches to work with, I was forced to be in the zone and attack and some good things were happening.”
Lynch gave up four hits and two walks in five innings. He gave up just one extra-base hit.
He bounced back from throwing 39 pitches in the second inning to get through five and looked dominant for stretches.
“I thought he really did a great job of getting through one of the toughest innings of the year,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I mean almost 40 pitches. It’s amazing that he gave up the one run there in the second. ... The odds of him being at 61 pitches after two and being out there through five are extremely low. He did a great job, being efficient. Ten strikeouts, only two walks on the day. He did a really good job of getting his composure back.”
Salvador Perez went 2 for 4 with a home run, a double, a walk, two runs scored and two RBIs.
The homer was his 10th of the season, which made Perez the fourth Royals player with at least 10 seasons of 10 home runs or more. He joined George Brett (15 seasons), Amos Otis (11 seasons) and Alex Gordon (10 seasons) in that category.
Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield had three hits (3 for 5) and a run scored, while Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 5 with an RBI. Michael A. Taylor also went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
MJ Melendez walked twice and had an RBI for KC.
“It’s a whole different-looking offense when we can get (Benintendi) and Whit going at the same time at the top,” Matheny said.
The Royals started the game with consecutive hits by Merrifield and Benintendi, then Perez roped a one-out RBI double to center field to grab a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
They tacked on a run in the second when Nicky Lopez singled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by Benintendi.
Lynch had to grind his way through the second inning after cruising his way to two outs with a strikeout and a groundout to start the frame. The next out took 31 pitches to record.
Lynch gave up back-to-back singles, a walk and another single. A bases-loaded wild pitch caromed just far enough away from Perez behind the plate for the lead runner to score from third base.
A ground ball ended the inning and kept the one-run lead intact. Reliever Daniel Mengden was warming in the bullpen at that point.
“If he doesn’t get the last hitter, he’s out,” Matheny said of Lynch. “I mean we’re at the end. Mengden is ready. We just can’t take him any farther than that. The pain threshold is really at it’s limit at that point.”
Instead Lynch made it through the inning and then struck out the next four batters he faced and retired nine in a row, including the grounder to end the second.
“I knew, logically, that they probably had to get somebody going,” Lynch said. “But I was like there’s no way they’re taking me out of this game, and there’s now way I’m going to do that too the bullpen. So that was kind of my mindset.”
Perez’s third-inning homer, a 422-foot blast to center field, restored the two-run advantage, 3-1. Perez jumped on a 2-0 fastball.
“He’s 60-70 percent fastballs,” Perez said. “That’s kind of (Frankie Montas’) game plan. We’ve faced him a lot. He’s got me a lot too. He’s a power pitcher, so he likes to throw his fastball. His sinker moves a lot downhill. He’s pretty good.”
Two unearned runs in the fifth inning increased that lead. Perez reached on a fielding error by third baseman Matt Davidson, and later in the inning, Melendez drove in one run with a sacrifice fly. The other run scored on an infield pop-up by Micahel A. Taylor that went for a single when it dropped in between the third baseman and shortstop.
The Royals scored all five runs against Athletics starting pitcher Montas. Two were unearned due to errors by the Athletics (22-44).
Bullpen reinforcements
Prior to Friday night’s game, the Royals reinstated left-handed relief pitcher Gabe Speier and right-handed relief pitcher Matt Peacock from the injured list. Both had been on minor-league rehab assignments with Double-A Northwest Arkansas.
Neither had pitched in the majors since May 30. They’d both gone on the COVID-related IL.
Speier entered the game in the eighth inning on Friday night. He pitched 2/3 of an inning and didn’t allow a hit.
In order to make room for Speier and Peacock, the Royals sent reliever Arodys Vizcaino outright to Triple-A Omaha and designated reliever Albert Abreu for assignment.
This story was originally published June 18, 2022 at 12:21 AM.
