Royals find themselves on the other end of a bullpen implosion, win 4-2

Rocco Baldelli will have some interesting questions to answer after this one.

I have had a policy all season of not panicking in any game until the Royals have given up at least two runs. It turns out, I was more right than I knew to have that policy, but we’ll talk about that more in a minute. First, let’s talk about the terrific pitching in tonight’s ball game.

Alec Marsh got the start for the Royals. He only went five innings, but he also only allowed two runs. Perhaps most impressively, he struck out five while walking none and giving up no home runs. When you strike out a batter per inning, give up no free passes, and no dingers, you are pitching extremely well. The two runs came on a series of three bad plate appearances in the third inning. That would be the only time the Twins truly threatened all night.

That is because the Royals’ bullpen also came up huge in this one. Daniel Lynch IV gave the Royals three innings of shutout relief ball while the team struggled down 2-0. He gave up only one hit, struck out four, and also walked none. Lucas Erceg pitched the ninth once the Royals had grabbed the lead, and he struck out one, and didn’t allow a single baserunner. That means three Royals pitchers combined to give up five hits, no walks, no home runs, and 10 strikeouts. Pretty damn good night.

For seven innings it seemed like it might be a waste. Bailey Ober, who has never pitched well against the Royals, pitched seven shutout innings in this one. As well as the Royals pitched, he was even better, striking out seven and allowing only an infield single to Robbie Grossman the entire night. He was getting popups and weak groundballs when he wasn’t striking guys out, but he was also keeping his pitch count down. After seven innings he had still thrown only 84 pitches. Still, somewhat inexplicably, Rocco Baldelli went to his bullpen in the eighth.

Weirdly, not only did he go to his bullpen, but he went to his closer, Jhoan Duran. It wasn’t like how Q uses Lucas Erceg either, the Royals’ 6-7-8 hitters were due up and the much scarier inning was definitely the ninth. Duran hasn’t been as good this year as in recent years, but he’s still led the team with 22 saves.

Whatever the reason, he came in and got Michael Massey to swing and miss after a long at-bat during which Massey fouled off ball four at least twice. Then Freddy Fermin smacked a line drive single into the left-center gap. Duran got ahead of Grossman 1-2 with two of the nastiest, dotted pitches you will ever see before hitting him on the foot with a breaking ball. Suddenly, you could feel the energy growing in the stadium even from your couch at home.

Dairon Blanco came in to run for Grossman as the tying run and Kyle Isbel came to the plate. On a 2-2 pitch Isbel did what he’s done multiple times recently and performed and inside-out swing to smack the ball just past the shortstop into left field. Fermin had to hold at second in case it was caught, but the Twins lined up the wrong way for a play at the plate and Vance Wilson, an aggressive sender at the best of times, sent Fermin home to score the Royals’ first run. That was it for Duran who, humorously, was credited with a hold for exiting the game with his team still in the lead.

In came the Twins’ setup man, Griffin Jax, who was apparently going to get the save opportunity tonight. Up to the plate came Tommy Pham. Pham was very glad to see the end of Ober who had struck him out all three times previously up to bat. Pham managed to make contact this time, sending a dribbler to the shortstop. Rookie Brooks Lee tried a barehand play to first but the throw was late and off-line. Carlos Santana, who has played like a gold glover, had exited the game earlier due to illness and Buck Farmer was at first. He couldn’t knock the ball down and Blanco scored.

Baldelli then came out to argue that Blanco had interfered with third baseman Royce Lewis on the play, but Lewis would have had to collide with Blanco and the umpires would have had to judge that Blanco did it intentionally in order for such a ruling to have been made. I’m not convinced that play was Lewis’ to make in any case. You can review in the replay above. In any case, runner’s interference is not a reviewable play and Baldelli was sent back to the dugout to stew as Bobby Witt Jr., hitless in this series came to bat with runners at the corners and only one out.

The Royals scored one more run on an MJ Melendez single up the middle, but Bobby was thrown out trying to score from first on a single to centerfield. It was a close play but it boggles the mind why he was even sent under those circumstances.

As noted earlier, Erceg came up and got a 1-2-3 ninth to finish the game.

And now back to the anecdote from the first paragraph, During the ninth inning the Fox Sports broadcast noted that the Royals were an MLB-best 62-7 when the other team scores three runs or fewer. Make that 63-7, now. For all the angst we have all expressed over the Royals’ offense this year, they’ve scored fewer than two runs only 13 times.

No matter what happens tomorrow, the Royals will finish the series ahead of the Twins for the second wild card spot. As I write this, Boston and Detroit have already won but the Guardians are losing. If those results stand, the Royals would finish the night 3.5 games back of the Guardians for the division lead, which is still a lot of ground to make up in only 19 contests but not impossible. Meanwhile, they are now 5.5 up on the Red Sox who would have to win six more games than them in the same span. The Tigers would have to win seven.

The Royals’ magic number for making the postseason stands at 15.

They will go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon behind Michael Wacha. The Twins will counter with Simeon Woods-Richardson. The game will start at 1:10 KC time.