Hey, Royals – where are the home runs indeed?
In the bottom of the fourth, Kris Bubic walked Kyle Manzardo to lead off the inning. Jhonkensy Noel reached on a fielder’s choice (throwing error by Jonathan India, playing third base), and Manzardo was safe at second because of the throwing error. Sadly I was cooking dinner (Chicken Tikka Masala rules!) and missed the play.
Then Gabriel Arias came up to hit. I’m gonna be honest with you – I had NO IDEA who he was. He had somehow taken 603 plate appearances before tonight’s game, all for Cleveland, and still his name was a complete unknown to me. He appears to be a utility infielder, mostly left side of the infield, but the internet tells me that he has in fact played every position on the diamond except catcher.
Ain’t gotta know someone’s name to hit a home run though. Bubic put a fastball low-and-in on the right-handed hitter, and Arias somehow managed to get his bat around on it and lofted a home run to the opposite field to make it 3-0.
Other than that homer, Bubic had a decent game. He finished with 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR. He had some blips here and there but looked to be generally cruising. Arias just got a good swing on that pitch. It really was not a bad pitch.
On offense, the Royals had a few opportunities to score but just could not capitalize. Bobby Witt Jr and Vinnie Pasquantino had back-to-back walks in the first inning and were in scoring position with two outs. Alas, Michael Massey struck out.
They scattered a few hits over the next innings, but got caught on the bases and just couldn’t muster anything. They got into the Guardians bullpen early, getting Tanner Bibee out after only 4 and 2⁄3 innings, but getting to the bullpen against the Guardians is not always a good thing. Tim Herrin, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis shut down the Royals in the middle innings.
So when the Guardians added some insurance runs against Chris Stratton in the eighth to make it 7-0, it didn’t really matter. The game felt out of reach pretty much as soon as Arias hit that home run in the fourth. I guess the only reason it mattered was because the Guardians sat down Clase instead of having him continue to warm up.
This game was just emblematic of the problems we already knew about. Aside from Bobby, the offense struggles. The low leverage bullpen guys are suspect. Both those problems led to the loss today. The offense really needs to get it going, or this team will barely manage to float around .500 all season if they’re lucky.
The 7-7 Royals will play the 7-6 Guardians again tomorrow. The game will be at 5:10pm US Central. You can watch on FanDuel Sports Kansas City or listen on 96.5 the Fan.
