The Royals have won six in a row. They lost eight out of ten over their last road trip, but in the two homestands surrounding that road trip, the Royals have now won 10 of 12. That gets them back to .500! Tonight’s win also guarantees a series win over the Astros and gives them a chance to sweep them tomorrow, which would also lead to a sweep of the homestand. But before we talk too much about tomorrow, let’s celebrate the best players of tonight.
Winners
Michael Wacha pitched six scoreless innings. Things got a bit tense in the sixth inning, but thanks to a barehand play by Salvador Perez and Michael Wacha racing to the bag to receive his throw, the final out was made. It was Wacha’s first quality start of the season and the first time he pitched six innings. He’s going to need to make them look a bit easier than this before I’ll feel good about seeing him in the sixth going forward, but you gotta start somewhere and six shutout innings is a beautiful place to start.
Bobby Witt Jr., speaking of beautiful places to start, managed to dig out a curveball inches above the ground and shot a groundball between the third baseman and shortstop. Somehow, that turned into a double, putting runners at second and third following a Jonathan India leadoff walk. That extended Bobby’s career-high hitting streak to 18 games. Only 13 more to tie Whit Merrifield’s streak.
Vinnie Pasquantino whacked an insurance home run off of Framber Valdez in the bottom of the fifth and is probably at least partly responsible for Wacha being allowed to try and work out of the jam he made for himself in the sixth. Even better, it was a changeup in and off the plate. Why is that better? Vinnie has struggled with swinging too early, missing swings and yanking balls he does make contact with foul. Hanging tough to get an inside changeup and put it over the fence – especially off a tough lefty – seems like a good sign for Vinnie to break out of the slump he’s been in since basically Opening Day. Of course, even with that slump, Vinnie leads the team in home runs and RBIs so, ya know, everything is relative.
Steven Cruz pitched a scoreless seventh because Lucas Erceg was unavailable tonight. Not only that, but it was a hitless seventh. Cruz hasn’t allowed a hit since joining the Royals when Hunter Harvey got hurt. Harvey is on the mend, but Cruz doesn’t seem like he’ll be giving up his spot in the bullpen anytime soon.
John Schreiber pitched a scoreless eighth, also because Erceg was unavailable tonight. He made it interesting, but if you pitch a scoreless eighth inning in a tight game, you’re a winner in my book. Especially when it’s part of a shutout.
Carlos Estévez pitched a clean ninth inning to pick up the save, his seventh, and complete the shutout. No heart attack necessary.
Honorable mentions
Jonathan India gets a shoutout for walking twice and scoring the first run of the game on Mark Canha’s sacrifice fly. That, by the way, means fully 75% of the runs scored in this series by either team have been scored via sacrifice fly. That’s probably at least close to being a record.
The Royals needed every inch of the excellent pitching they received tonight because the offense fully vanished for most of the game. They had a total of three hits and two walks – Canha added a single in the seventh inning. That won’t be enough to win most games, but they made enough of their few opportunities against one of the toughest pitchers in the sport.
As noted earlier, the Royals will get a chance to go for the series and homestand sweep tomorrow. Kris Bubic will take the mound for KC, and he’s got to be salivating after seeing what Wacha and Seth Lugo did to this team. Hunter Brown, who has been excellent so far this year, will go for the Astros. Look for it to be another low-scoring affair. The game will start at 1:10 PM CDT and will be simulcast on Fanduel and KSMO, for those of you without access to the normal TV partner. Naturally, it can also be heard on the Royals Radio Network.
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