Lucas Erceg’s postgame Royals interview went viral. It also told another story
To a certain degree, anyway, no doubt Royals reliever Lucas Erceg regretted his fickle flicker of profanity in a postgame interview with Royals.TV on Saturday night in Seattle.
Just before the damns burst, so to speak, the amped-up Erceg was fighting the good fight of restraint by summoning the word “freakin’” … only to succumb to a couple terms right out of the old George Carlin bit about the seven words you can’t say on television.
Almost instantaneously, Erceg blurted out an “excuse me” to interviewer Joel Goldberg and turned to the camera with a wave and a wide-eyed “whoops” look.
But the reason there’s also a “sorry/not sorry” undertone to this was visible in what came next: Erceg shaking his head and letting out a “woo!”
When I broached the topic with him after the Royals returned home on Monday, he smiled sheepishly and called the moment “kind of unprofessional.”
But he also amplified something about the state of mind of an elite athlete, particularly one in the daredevil role of closing out a game, suddenly speaking mere moments after delivering in the crucible.
“I was high on adrenaline,” Erceg said.
And why not? His save that night was his third of the six-game road trip and ninth of the season — tying him for the American League lead. More significantly, it was part of a Royals resurgence of eight wins in 11 games after a 7-16 start that included a couple losses Erceg uncharacteristically struggled in and contributed to.
So you can see why Eric Hosmer was having fun suggesting T-shirts ought to be coming with the uncensored expression emblazoned on them.
No word on how Erceg might feel about that after wishing he could take back the more graphic version of the idea he’s darned well enjoying this stuff.
But he appreciated one aspect of being so overcome as to let down his filter.
For fans to get to see the curtain pulled back on the profound intensity of such moments.
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” he said. “I think we as professional players don’t really get to express ourselves that way we truly feel on the inside. And in that moment, maybe I did a little more than I should have. … (But) I think the fans want to see a little more expression out of the players.”
Bat flips and celebrations coming off the mound, he added, are “part of the entertainment.”
This wasn’t exactly those, of course. Which is why Erceg both says “I’m definitely going to try and not make that mistake again, but it is what it is, right?”
Part of all this also is about the other end of the spectrum … and Erceg’s deft ability to navigate the swings of the pendulum.
In back-to-back appearances in mid-April, you might recall, Erceg took a loss at Detroit and blew a save in the ninth that led to a 12th-inning home loss against Baltimore.
In the Royals clubhouse that night, Erceg fumed at himself after allowing three walks and a hit to enable the Orioles to tie the game on a night that otherwise would have been marked by Seth Lugo’s seven innings of one-hit ball.
As of that night, the Royals had the worst record in baseball.
“Unacceptable” and “atrocious” and “(darned) horrible,” Erceg called those consecutive outings.
But he also was identifying what he thought was going wrong, twice mentioning thoughts along the lines of “trying to do too much.”
“That doesn’t work in this league, trying too hard,” he said that night. “You have to have full confidence in what you want to do.”
So in an odd way that funk was affirmation. He’s more than enough but simply needed to get back to being himself.
Which manager Matt Quatraro surmised is what’s happened since as he’s seen Erceg return to attacking in the zone more:
In Erceg’s last six outings as of Monday night, he’s given up one hit, no earned runs and racked up four saves and two wins.
That’s been a vital part of a recent uptick by the bullpen, which has included the key emergence of Daniel Lynch IV. Entering the game Monday night, Royals relievers had not allowed a hit to the previous 27 batters they’d faced and had surrendered just five runs in 29.2 innings (a 1.52 ERA) over the last nine games.
It’s quite a reset for Erceg. But it’s also entirely to be expected considering what he’s demonstrated the last few years as a Royal — and the inspiring and touching backstory that makes him so easy to root for.
The reason he has the date 6/10/20 stitched on his glove is because that’s the anniversary of his sobriety. Or … “Day One of the rest of my life,” as he put it when we spoke at length about that in 2024.
So all the emotions that fuel Erceg also are honed and harnessed by perspective. Even as he seethed that April night about that loss to the Orioles, he remained cognizant of the bigger picture.
“I’ve battled bigger demons in my life,” he said then. “And as big as tonight feels, I know tomorrow I’m going to wake up with the expectation to go out and create that success. It’s what’s gotten me to this point.”
And informed what got into him on Saturday night.