KC Royals’ Heasley rebounds from early exit in previous start, beats San Diego Padres
Right-hander Jonathan Heasley was happy to just fade into the background and let the Kansas City Royals’ offense take center stage in a rout of the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon.
Heasley described the offensive onslaught by his teammates “awesome” after they scored a season-high 15 runs in a series-ending victory over the Padres at Kauffman Stadium.
The Padres won the series two games to one, but the Royals avoided being swept and salvaged a 3-3 record on their homestand.
Heasley (2-7) earned the win. He pitched five innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits, including a pair of Manny Machado home runs, and two walks. Heasley also tied his career high with seven strikeouts.
“We had one play that didn’t get made, or we’d probably be able to keep him out there a little longer,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I would have liked to have been able to push him a little further. It was a great day with potential distractions all over the place for him. To just go out and make pitches and keep us in that game and limit the damage, I thought he did a great job.”
The most unusual stat from Heasley’s performance, which became relevant because of his most recent outing, is that he vomited zero times.
That relates to Matheny’s allusion to “distractions.”
The Royals removed Heasley from his previous start in the fifth inning after he vomited on the field three times over a two-inning span against the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 23.
Heasley insisted it was something he’d experienced, usually pregame, throughout his athletic career dating back to high school. The Royals removed him from the game anyway for his own safety.
Sunday, he made his first start since that incident.
Heasley downplayed the events of his previous start when asked how much time he devoted to changing his pregame preparation or routine in light of his previous start.
“I wasn’t really worried about that,” Heasley said. “That’s kind of something I’ve dealt with forever. So I didn’t really change anything as far as that goes. I wasn’t really worried about it. Everything mainly this week was worried about mechanics and all that.
“It happens, and it was what it was. We kind of moved on from that. So I wasn’t really too worried about it.”
Heasley contended that his primary concern between starts has been an adjustment to his pitching delivery that has allowed him to have more consistent command of his fastball and thereby allowed his other pitches to play better off of his fastball.
Matheny said Heasley had the “best mix of four pitches” the Royals have seen from him in his time in the majors (18 starts).
Heasley notched his third career win in an outing where all the runs he allowed were driven in by Machado, including two home runs and an RBI single.
“A couple pitches, obviously, a couple home runs that hurt,” Heasley said. “Overall, I felt like I was really good. I felt like I threw the ball well. I thought my command was way better than we saw last week. I made some adjustments in the bullpen, and I felt like I took it into the game.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2022 at 8:05 PM.
