The offense had its moments, and there was plenty to take away that was positive, but the starter wasn’t quite good enough, and the bullpen coughed up a lead. The offense played a part too, getting mostly dominated after a fantastic first, but it’s hard to get on that unit when they scored six runs, no matter how they got there.

Noah Cameron wasn’t bad, but he certainly wasn’t good. Jose Cuas was certainly bad. Alex Lange was worse. Carter Jensen had a big game, but an unfortunate lapse behind the plate. The Royals just weren’t as crisp as we saw for the last few weeks before Sunday. Was it the heat? Maybe. I’ve got some numbers there. Is it the fact that losing Sunday was sort of a backbreaker, and it’s hard not to fall flat for a couple of days? Maybe that too. Whatever it was, we were treated to a game we’ve definitely seen in some way many times this year.

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Many teams have a mantra that if they just win series, everything will fall into place. And that’s a great thought until you get to a point where winning a series may not quite be enough. If you harbored any hopes of the Royals actually getting back into the playoff race this weekend against Cleveland, I broke it down on Friday, but they pretty much needed to sweep. Nobody will complain about taking two of three in a weekend, but Sunday’s finale was a swing of two games in the standings, so with that loss, they’re 7.5 games back of Cleveland with 24 to play instead of 5.5 back. One of those numbers was daunting but bordering on manageable. The other, well, isn’t.

They could go out this week and have another perfect homestand, and suddenly things are back to looking up. But they went into the weekend with four, maybe five losses left before their slimmest of slim hopes were gone. Now it’s three or four. We can eulogize and pinpoint each moment things went wrong before the last few weeks that made this stretch a nearly impossible run, but I also think it’s important to recognize it was still a good weekend and a good road trip. It was just their second winning road trip of the year. They took four of six in late April/early May and that was it. They did go 5-5 on a trip in late May/early June, but this is the second road trip all year they won more than they lost. You don’t get to 26-46 on the road by winning.

So here we are, with 24 games to go, and it does feel like even the tiniest hope is essentially gone, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not fun to watch them play better baseball down the stretch. If they want to start another nine-game winning streak, I certainly won’t turn that down. We’ll get to it at the bottom with what’s up next, but they’ve got a challenge this week at home with three teams fighting for the postseason. The Marlins are currently 3.5 out of the last Wild Card spot. The Blue Jays are currently 1.5 out of the last Wild Card spot. And the Diamondbacks are one-half game ahead of the Padres for the third Wild Card spot in the NL. So everyone has something to play for.

Kauffman Corner

There is no podcast from last night because we’re recording tonight at 9 pm CDT! So make sure you catch us either on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Twitch (I think?), or wherever you get your podcasts after the fact. We’ll dig into the recent success, if they’re even remotely in the race, etc.

The Games

Friday - Royals 3, Guardians 0: Wacha was Wonderful

This was a fantastic game, and there are two big stories from it that aren’t Michael Wacha, but Wacha is the biggest story by far. He was just outstanding in what was probably his best start as a Royal. Here’s his final line:

8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 10 K, 0 BB

It’s just the second time he’s gone eight innings this year and his third time with the Royals. It’s the first time he’s struck out 10 or more since he did it against the Royals with the Padres in 2023, and just the third time since 2015 and the fifth time in his career. And, friends, this is not a short career. He has now made 336 appearances and 335 starts. He’s two innings short of 1,800 in his career. And he’s struck out double-digit batters just five times. And one of them was Friday night!

It was one of those nights when everything clicked. Ironically, three of the four hits he allowed were on his best pitch, the changeup. But he had the four-seamer humming, touching 97.8 MPH in the third inning. Now, he used to throw harder more consistently than he does now. He reached as high as 99.1 MPH in a game against the Cubs in September 2017. But his last pitch at 97 MPH or harder was August 23, 2024, against the Phillies. The last time before that was September 28, 2021, against Houston. He’s broken 97 just seven times since 2019. When I saw that velocity on the screen (and it showed 98), I was legitimately shocked.

Everything he threw was harder. I don’t think it’s a hot gun because they’re all uniform radar guns these days, but his four-seam average was up 1.6 MPH. His changeup was up the same. His cutter was up 2.3 MPH. His curve was up 1.2, his sinker 1.3, and his slider 2.0. So I don’t know what the deal there was. But whatever it was, he was doing was working. He got 16 overall whiffs. He only gave up five hard-hit balls. He threw first-pitch strikes. He allowed two baserunners in the third, but only allowed one more until the bottom of the eighth, when he gave up a one-out single, but that batter never made it to second even.

In the eighth, when he got the first out on one pitch, I was dreaming of a complete game. But Petey Halpin singled on the eighth pitch of his at bat. Steven Kwan needed six to strike out. If he could have gotten out of there at maybe 94 pitches, I could see it, but he was at 103, so they weren’t going to chance it. I get it.

So now we can talk about the two other big stories. The Royals scored their first run in a way fitting of a pitcher’s duel, with a Bobby Witt Jr. double followed by him advancing to third on a Jac Caglianone fly ball and then scoring on a grounder by Salvador Perez. But with Wacha ready to come out of the game and Steven Cruz warming up, I think everyone wanted a little more than a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.

Thankfully, Isaac Collins (and Jo Adell) was ready to help. He hit a ball to right-center that Adell just missed, and it ended up as a double for Collins. Josh Rojas sacrificed him to third, but Kyle Isbel had a truly miserable at bat, striking out while swinging at four pitches that were not in the zone. Only one was even close. So with two outs, it looked like the Royals might waste an opportunity for insurance. Carter Jensen had other ideas.

He got a cutter at the top of the zone, and he didn’t miss it. Craig Yoho, the Guardians pitcher, has a fantastic changeup, but he gave Jensen three straight cutters after starting the at bat with a changeup that Jensen fouled off. Maybe he didn’t like the swing and got worried, but I have to tell you that giving a guy three straight looks at a pitch doesn’t often end positively. I’m not complaining. And that gave Jensen the franchise record for home runs by a rookie catcher, which is a lot to say not much, but it's nice that he's now ahead of MJ Melendez and has been heating up after a cold stretch.

Now to the bottom of the ninth. You know the final score, and it’s been three days, so you know what happened. But Cruz pitched what I think might be the most dominant and stressful save I’ve ever seen. Chase DeLauter caught up with 99.6 MPH in the middle and hit a ground ball through a hole in left field. He hit it hard enough, so whatever. But then Cruz got Jose Ramirez to look silly on a slider in the dirt for the first out.

Then he badly tied up Adell on a 99.6 MPH fastball up and in and gave up a tiny little bloop to right. But then he threw three straight at 100+ MPH to Nathaniel Lowe and got two swinging strikes and a foul ball for the second out. Then he hit a guy on a pitch that I don’t think hit the batter. Replay saw something I guess. But then got an ugly swing from Angel Genao to ground out softly to end the game. The winning run was at the plate, but I don’t think anyone really wanted to face Cruz. A win is a win, and Wacha deserved every bit of it.

Saturday - Royals 8, Guardians 3: Josh Rojas and the Royals Bullpen Come Through…Why Not?

You could argue Wacha deserves the win in this one too because he saved the bullpen for an adventure start from Daniel Lynch IV, who has had decent results but continues to prove to me that he should be part of the 2027 bullpen. Lynch needed 70 pitches to get through 3.1 innings, and he gave up two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts. The two runs came on one swing by Angel Martinez, but it was still an extremely uneven outing.

That bullpen, though, was incredible. Until Alex Lange came in and allowed a run on two hits, they threw 4.2 perfect innings. Anthony Gose, of all people, threw 1.2 innings and ended up getting his first win since 2022 with Cleveland. He’s now faced eight batters over two outings and retired all eight. That will work, though he hasn’t struck anyone out. He also hit 98.3 MPH with his four-seamer and got the Guardians to chase on five of the nine pitches he threw out of the zone.

After Gose, it was Craig Kimbrel, who continues to be really impressive. He worked a 1-2-3 sixth. He’s now thrown 6.1 innings with the Royals and allowed just one hit and two walks. He’s only struck out three, so yes, there are concerns about long-term viability, but he’s been a heck of a find. We talked about Kimbrel last week on the podcast, I think, and the selling point to keeping him around next year is if he is obviously like sixth in the pecking order but can be a coach who also plays. I don’t think that’s the worst thing to have, and I do wonder a little if they’ve missed that aspect of Carlos Estevez beyond just him closing out games.

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John Schreiber was next with a perfect, but strikeout-less inning. Then after the game, we found out the Royals had put him on waivers, which is an extremely common thing for teams to do with players like Schreiber. It has nothing to do with being cheap, though they would save about $600,000 if he’s claimed (we’ll find out today). It has everything to do with either clearing a roster spot or giving a veteran who will be a free agent a chance to go play for a pennant that he likely won’t be playing for in Kansas City. The fact that they did it during their run tells me that the front office is far more realistic about their chances than many were fearful they were.

After that, Nate Pearson had another outstanding outing, getting Cleveland 1-2-3 on 13 pitches. He continues to show that he will go into next season with a spot reserved in the bullpen. He’s given up just one run on seven hits in 14.2 innings. He’s walked six, which is fine. I’d like to see more than 13 strikeouts in 14.2 innings, but if he moves into a middle relief/setup role with that arm, yes please.

And obviously Lange gave up a run when it was 8-2. He’s kind of pitching for his 2027 life right now, I think. Cruz and Pearson have settled some things for power righties. They acquired Carlos Duran already. I feel very confident saying they’re going to get more. I think at some point, Lange has to feel like he is heading toward a non-tender, and I think that would be the right move.

Now let’s talk the comeback. Foster Griffin held the Royals down quite well in the first four innings. He gave up a double to Perez and a walk to Tyler Tolbert in the second, but Collins hit into a double play to end that inning. It was six up, six down in the third and fourth. But a Nick Loftin double and Tolbert infield single was followed up by Collins making up for that earlier double play and a couple of defensive gaffes at second base with a double down the line to tie the game.

The Royals broke it open in the sixth. Witt singled to center, and Caglianone singled to right to move Witt to third. Perez followed with a line drive double to score Witt and move Caglianone to third. And with Griffin out, Matt Quatraro went to work re-gaining the platoon advantage. John Rave hit for Tolbrert and hit a grounder to third that Jose Ramirez kicked. That scored the fourth run. Collins got Perez forced out at home on a grounder, but Josh Rojas pinch hit for Matthew Lugo and took an excuse-me swing and just dumped a ball into left field to drive in two and make it 6-2.

Move ahead to the bottom of the eighth, Rave singled and Rojas came up.

There aren’t many home runs the Royals have hit softer than that 92.4 MPH, but it still counts the same. What a day for Rojas. He comes off the bench to go 2 for 2 with a home run and four RBI. Rave and Rojas combined to go 3 for 4 with three runs scored and four RBI, so those are two solid moves. It was a good day for the Royals, a great day by Quatraro and an outstanding day by most of the bullpen and Rojas.

Sunday - Guardians 11, Royals 1: Lugo Implodes

I want to be careful not to be too harsh toward a certain starting pitcher, so I don’t have a lot to say about this game other than that I would go ahead and tell Seth Lugo to enjoy his winter and see what Lucas Braun can do the rest of the way. They likely can’t do that without a grievance because Lugo has an innings clause that can trigger his 2028 option to vest, but I think we’ve all seen enough of Lugo this season.

In August, after giving up nine runs in 3.2 innings to raise his ERA to 5.03, he gave up fivie or more runs in four of his six starts. Is the line drive off his head still impacting him? I don’t know, but he has a 6.27 ERA in 14 starts since he came back. He’s throwing fewer pitches, even if only slightly. He threw eight different ones yesterday, and two of them were a slow curve, so he barely threw that. But he only had six whiffs on 47 swings.

All of his velocities were way up. Quatraro mentioned either on pregame or on MLB Network Radio yesterday morning that he’d changed some things up and was having a little trouble getting into a rhythm. I need to go side by side, but I didn’t notice much of a delivery change by the naked eye. Though for the second straight game, his curveball that was already one of the highest-spin pitches in baseball had more spin than usual. He’s a smart pitcher, but whatever he’s doing just isn’t working. He needs to go back to the drawing board and reinvent himself for 2027 because this simply isn’t good enough.

You kind of wondered if it would be one of these days even before he took the mound because the offense mounted a two-out rally with a Caglianone double and Perez bloop single to score him. Then Pasquantino singled, but Loftin struck out. Lugo immediately gave up three runs that was initially aided by an error in right field by Caglianone, but then became irrelevant because Lugo was 0-2 on Adell but couldn’t put him away and ended up walking him before allowing a home run to Nathaniel Lowe.

On the bright side, I actually thought Connor Thomas looked good again. I’m not sure I’d stretch him to a third inning of work. He gave up his first runs with the Royals when he was out there after having worked in the previous two innings. But I also sort of get it. I don’t fully get it because they have the off day today and can add a pitcher tomorrow when rosters expand, but why not? Jose Cuas threw another scoreless inning. He’s been interesting. and Luke Maile threw an eight-pitch eighth. He even got a swing and miss.

So anyway, a bummer of a finale, but also a 4-2 road trip is nothing to sneeze at. Again, they haven’t done much of that this year. I don’t want to let yesterday’s rough game cloud what’s been an outstanding stretch of baseball for the last few weeks.

Player of the Week

Even with the loss yesterday, it was a good week for the Royals, going 4-2 and scoring 30 runs in six games (which includes scoring one run total in the two losses). The heroics of Rojas on Saturday were great, and he hit .444/.500/.889 this week, but it was in just 11 plate appearances so he probably is out of the running. Pasquantino had a nice week, hitting .278/.435/.444 with a 156 wRC+, but that’s not good enough and we know it. Isaac Collins hit .333/.400/.500 wiht a 139 wRC+ in 20 plate appearances, which is solid and great to see on the road. But it really came down to two hitters, Jensen and Caglianone, and one pitcher.. Here are the numbers:

• Jensen: .273/.433/.545, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 4 R, 170 wRC+

• Caglianone: .435/.435/.652, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 5 R, 206 wRC+

• Wacha: 8 IP, 4 H, 10 K, 0 BB, 0 R

Let’s be real, Jensen is out, but good week for him. I generally struggle with one-start pitchers getting this because they were out there one time. But Wacha was so dominant that it makes it tough for me to go against him. Still, I have to go with the guy who should win the American League Player of the Month and give it to Caglianone. Again.

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The Week Ahead

I mentioned above that it’ll be a tough week for the Royals, though they aren’t playing any great teams. The Marlins are one game over while the Blue Jays are two games under, though they did sweep the Mariners after the Royals took it to them in the finale. Let’s start with the Marlins, who just lost two of three to the Nationals after losing two of three to Boston. They were 26-34 at the end of May, but went 26-8 to get to 10 games over. They’re 17-26 since then. If you know what the Marlins are, you’re a step ahead of me. I will say that they’re 42-27 at home and 27-41 on the road. Sound familiar?

Their offense is pretty well-balanced. Kyle Stowers seems to have found a home at first base, while Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez are a dynamic middle infield, albeit without much power. Heriberto Hernandez has come in this year, and they have some young talent in the outfield in Jakob Marsee and Owen Caissie, who are a little hit-or-miss. Girffin Conine has been fantastic for them. Old friend Esteury Ruiz has been really good for them too. They’re an interesting offense.

The pitching staff is mostly quite good. Sandy Alcantara is the name ace, and he’s had a nice year. Eury Perez is the guy you don’t want to face, though. He had a rough one his last time out, but he has a 2.18 ERA in 78.1 innings in his last 14 starts with just 46 hits allowed. He came back last year from Tommy John and was fine, but he’s rebounded now to get back to the form he showed as a rookie. Their bullpen is led by Calvin Faucher, Michael Petersen and Tyler Zuber, a name you’ve all probably forgotten, but he’s having a nice year. They have a lot of power in that bullpen, even though it’s not always effective power.

Here are the projected pitching matchups:

• Tuesday: RHP Tyler Phillips (3-6, 3.59 ERA, 18.9% K, 9.9% BB) vs. RHP Randy Dobnak

• Wednesday: RHP Eury Perez (7-10, 3.44 ERA, 26.8% K, 10.6% BB) vs. LHP Noah Cameron

• Thursday: TBD but probably RHP Sandy Alcantara (13-8, 3.46 ERA, 17.9% K, 6.4% BB) vs. RHP Michael Wacha
  

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The Blue Jays aren’t quite as bad on the road as the Marlins, but they are 31-35 away from Toronto. There likely isn’t anything you need to know that we didn’t cover last week about them other than the fact that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is just a slight threat to homer on the road whereas he’s no threat at home. Matchups aren’t set yet, but if everything holds between now and Friday, it’ll be RHP Jameson Taillon vs. Lynch, RHP Max Scherzer vs. Lugo and RHP Spencer Arrighetti vs. Dobnak.

It’s only one game, but boy did they answer that question emphatically. They dismantled the Blue Jays in an impressive showing, winning 13-2 and tying for their second-largest margin of victory this year. They got contributions from almost everyone in the lineup, including two hits from players brought in when the game was out of hand. But their stars really did the starring in this one, while nobody shined brighter than Jac Caglianone. And it came a day after he had a pretty rough day at the plate in big spots, so it was nice to see him bounce back in a big way.

Caglianone is now just one five-hit game away this year from tying Billy Butler, Al Cowens, Joe Randa and, oh yeah, Tyler Tolbert for most five-hit games in a season by a Royals hitter.

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How many times have the Royals won in a row?

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about just how the Royals won their ninth straight game. The fact that I’m even writing that sentence is still blowing my mind, but here we are, and the Royals haven’t lost since Saturday, August 15. Even that day, they could have won, but Reid Detmers was outstanding, and they lost 1-0. We could easily be talking about 11 in a row instead of nine, but we’ll have to settle for what we’ve got and talk about winning 10 of 11. Last night was interesting, though, because it certainly wasn’t clean, but some unlikely heroes stepped up.

For example, I’m not sure they would have won that game without Tyler Tolbert, who entered the game in the bottom of the fifth inning when Michael Massey hurt himself while making an excellent play to get the second out against Nathan Lukes. He was falling backward as he threw, and his head hit the turf hard and bounced up. The Royals say he was feeling okay after the game, but with all the precautions around head injuries, I don’t think there was any chance he'd stay in the game. We obviously are hoping for the best, but it is interesting how Tolbert stepped up. It wasn’t quite like John Rave the other day when he came in for Jac Caglianone, but Tolbert played a huge role.

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What if the Royals never lose again? I don’t just mean this year, but for all of eternity. That would be pretty cool. Okay, fine, it won’t go that way, but what a homestand and what a weekend. They’ve only swept five series all year, and two of them were this past week on this past homestand. Can’t complain about that. They’ve now won 17 of their past 21 at home and are 36-30 at Kauffman Stadium. If you do some quick math, you know they were 19-26 at home before they beat the Phillies on a Sunday afternoon (and then bludgeoned them the next day), but 36-30 at home will work. It’s the 22-44 on the road that has me concerned, particularly for the next week.

But it’s just nice to see them play winning baseball, and specifically to do it against a team fighting for something. It’s one thing to beat the A’s and basically just wait until they put some relievers in the game to be able to come back. But the Tigers, while not what I’d call a good team, are (or were) in the playoff race. Yes, they traded Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, and yes, Riley Greene is on the IL, but they have (had?) fought back amazingly, coming from 18 games under .500 to be right back in it. They’ve now lost eight of nine, so maybe they’re playing so poorly that they should be thought of in the same regard as the A’s at this moment, but wins are wins.

Are the Royals in the race? Well no. They’re 7.5 back with 30 to play. That alone is daunting. They also have to pass the Tigers, Mariners, Orioles, Twins, Blue Jays, Rangers and Guardians. Generally, being behind half the league is a bad thing. We talked about it on the podcast last night that you can check out below, but they’re going to need to gain like three or four games in the next 10 and pass at least three teams before I’ll think they’re really in it. It’s a shame too because they hold the tiebreaker over three of the teams ahead of them (Detroit, Seattle, Minnesota) and could hold the tiebreaker over Cleveland and Toronto when it’s all said and done. So for now it’s just a fun story that their playoff odds have jumped to 0.1 percent.

Sometimes people say that stranger things have happened. I honestly don’t think they have. I’m not sure a team has been 24 games below .500 with less than a quarter of the season to go and made the playoffs. I’m not dumb enough to guarantee that it won’t happen this year, though I feel pretty confident in saying it won’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m not curious of what the standings look like. And I’ll tell you something I’ll probably say a lot over the next few weeks. That’s more fun than not caring at all.

Kauffman Corner

This week, Soren and I looked at the long winning streak and what it means, along with Daniel Lynch IV getting a shot, the bullpen and how it’s improved, the Royals’ best starter, the new stadium, and more. Make sure to give us a listen. You can either watch the podcast here or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Here We Go Again?

The long winning streak has brought back an old trope that the Royals “always do this.” They have a great finish, give false hope, and then everyone’s upset. I wrote about this three years ago after their last perfect homestand. It wasn’t true then. It’s not true now.

Since 1995, the Royals have played in 31 seasons that featured two halves (2020 obviously doesn’t count here). They’ve been better in the second half in 18 of 31 seasons. You’d probably expect about half, but they have such terrible first halves that I’ll bet 18/31 makes sense. But in only 10 of those seasons, their second-half winning percentage was at least .050 higher than the first half. It’s important to keep in mind that better isn’t always good. An ugly second-half winning percentage may be “better” than the first half, but who cares when it’s .413, like in 2006?

Three years ago, I listed .450 as the minimum winning percentage for a second half to be relevant. That’s a 73-win season over 162 games, which is at least not 90 losses. I looked at years that combined that with at least a .040 improvement in winning percentage. I bumped the threshold to .050 because I think it makes a little more sense as far as a demonstrable difference. About half the seasons cleared .450 in the second half (only 10 in the first half did), but only seven also improved by .050: 1996, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2025.

Of those seven, 1996, 2018 and 2021 clearly meant nothing. I think 2011 mattered because the young core was finally in place, even if the playoff run came later. 2013 led directly into 2014’s World Series run. We know why 2014 was relevant. I think you could argue about last year’s run, but I also think that calling it meaningless is revisionist. It did nothing for this year, obviously, but they were coming off a playoff year and contending again. The other three +.050 second halves that didn’t clear .450 were 2016, 2019 and 2023. The first two were meaningless. The latest set up a playoff season.

Look, here’s the bottom line. The Royals are often better in the second half, but it’s not nearly to the level that many would lead you to believe. And when they are, it has meant something roughly half the time. I’d guess the split isn’t all that different for most teams. The Royals just have more bad first halves to climb out of. My advice is the same I gave three years ago. You can take it or leave it. But enjoy this. Watching winning baseball is more fun than watching losing baseball.

The Games

Friday - Royals 5, Tigers 2: Big Flies and Defense

I was extremely curious to see Noah Cameron face this Tigers offense for a second time since he started calling his own pitches. They were the first team he faced in this run, and he was dominant over seven innings. But you might recall that his day started in the second inning as Beck Way opened for him. He got the start in this one, and the final results were very good from a run-prevention standpoint, but there were some reasons to pause.

Look, nobody is going to say no to five innings and no runs, so I’m not going to complain too much here, but he just struggled to put guys away, particularly with two outs. He needed 85 pitches to get through five innings, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Here are his pitches by inning to get the first two outs:

1st - 7
2nd - 10
3rd - 8
4th - 6
5th - 9

That’s 40 total pitches. He walked the second man of the second inning, so he faced 11 batters to get these 10 outs. Now here are his pitches by inning after he recorded two outs:

1st - 4
2nd - 2
3rd - 12
4th - 18
5th - 9

By simple math, you know that’s 45 pitches to get five outs from nine batters. It was frustrating to watch, especially when you see how efficient the first two innings were. Hell, through 2.2 innings, he’d thrown 31 pitches to get eight outs on nine batters. But when the lineup turned over, the Tigers really went to work against him. We’ve seen the Royals give up some back-breaking two-out runs, so it’s not that two-out rallies can’t hurt, but they do make it harder for the opponent. Even in a lot of trouble, he was just one out away from getting out of it most of the time. He finally actually had his first 1-2-3 inning in his final frame. But I don’t have a problem with him getting lifted after 85 pitches, particularly after throwing 115 the last time out.

It just felt like his command wasn’t quite there. He only started 10 of 20 batters with a strike. He wasn’t hit hard at all, but he was just sort of spraying around the zone. He got a decent amount of chase, but not many whiffs. It was just one of those games where the stuff wasn’t as crisp as it had been. But to Cameron’s credit, he worked through it and gutted it out. You’d like to not rely on the Royals bullpen to get 12 outs, especially against this Tigers team that seems to always get the big hit against them, but I can’t complain about five shutout innings without really having it.

Just to update the numbers since he started calling his own games:

6 G
42.2 IP
15 H (this is absurd)
36 K
12 BB
1.05 ERA

It was primed to be a good pitching matchup with Troy Melton on the other side. Melton entered the game with a career ERA in 130 innings of under 2.00. He entered the game yesterday with a season ERA of 1.49 in 84.1 innings. I don’t buy that he’s one of the elite pitchers in our game, but I think the numbers show he’s very good. Matt Quatraro has mentioned this when facing him before that he has a unique arm angle, and the fastball just really gets on you quickly. Royals hitters struggled a bit the first time through. Bobby Witt Jr. had a hit, but there were a ton of popups. They had one real scoring chance in the second when Nick Loftin walked and Isaac Collins singled to right to put men on first and third with two outs, but Kyle Isbel hit a 104.6 MPH line drive right to Max Clark in center to end the inning. Put a pin in Isbel hitting that ball hard, though.

In the fourth, Vinnie Pasquantino continued his hot return to the active roster with a double to right, off the glove of Spencer Torkelson. With two outs, he came around to score on a Kevin McGonigle error on a hard-hit Michael Massey ground ball. This started a trend of the Royals scoring one run per inning for the rest of the game.

In the fifth, it was Isbel leading off. Remember how well he saw that pitch earlier?

In the sixth, it was Pasquantino leading off.

Melton has now allowed 10 home runs this year, but he allowed seven of them in a four-start stretch in June that included a game he allowed four. Since then, he’s allowed just three in nine starts, spanning 52.1 innings. All three have been hit by the Royals. The two today that you just saw are joined by Collins back in Detroit last month. Since the start of July, he has a 1.03 ERA with 51 strikeouts and 19 walks. Against the Royals in that time, he hasn’t been bad, but has a 3.38 ERA with eight strikeouts and seven walks. Can’t be upset with that.

In the seventh, the Tigers had just cut the lead from 3-0 to 3-2, so this time Carter Jensen led off with a mammoth home run against a lefty reliever.

This was a continuation for Jensen after a long hitless streak of him seeming to be coming alive. It was his first home run since August 7 and just his second of the month and fourth since the break.

The Royals would get one more in the eighth. Massey started the inning with a double, and Isbel drove him in with a ball hit down the left field line to score Massey.

Nate Pearson got the save after Steven Cruz was used as the fireman in the seventh and eighth, and the Royals grabbed the first game.

Saturday - Royals 3, Tigers 1: Old Timer’s Day

When I was younger and someone would talk about an older player and they’d be like 33, I never really understood why adults were at least slightly annoyed. Now, I sit here and call a Saturday night win over the Tigers “Old Timer’s Day” and I’m annoyed with myself. But that’s what happens when a 35-year-old pitcher gets the win and is backed by a home run from a 36-year-old with a 38-year-old getting the save.

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It all starts with Michael Wacha, who bounced back from a rough one against the A’s to throw a gem against the Tigers. He went seven innings and gave up just a run on three hits with six strikeouts and one walk. I’d call it a bit of a no frills outing because, as is so often the case, it wasn’t jaw dropping, but he just got the job done. He only had nine swings and misses, but the Tigers only hit six balls hard. He threw first-pitch strikes. He kept the ball in the zone. They just didn’t do much with it.

Unlike Cameron, Wacha got the third out. I thought it might be another one of those nights when he got the first two in the first before he walked Colt Keith and gave up a single to Dillon Dingler, but they went 1-2-3 in the second, third and sixth, and he only gave up one two-out after that. It was a home run, so it was a big one, but he generally just didn’t seem to have any problem putting innings away. I was actually fascinated by how many changeups he threw in the zone.

You just don’t usually see that many that seem awfully hittable. But the Tigers just couldn’t do much with it. They didn’t whiff on it that much, coming up empty on just four of 18 swings. But they only hit one of them hard and only went 1 for 6 on the pitch. Wacha really leaned heavily on it when he got to the third time through, throwing it 42 percent of the time compared to 26 percent the first two times.

The offense came from two swings and a wild pitch. The first swing was from Isbel, who had a great weekend.

Quatraro mentioned after Sunday’s game that Isbel had done some work with the hitting coaches because he had really been struggling since coming off the IL. Well, it worked. That was a big-boy home run right there.

One inning later, the big boy hit his own.

I’m convinced we’ll be talking about a Royals game in 2037 at the new stadium, and the story will be about how Salvador Perez hasn’t done much offensively, but he was able to drive one 431 feet to dead center for his 15th home run and 19th hit of the year. Sometimes hitting looks so hard with him, but when he gets into a ball to center, it just looks so easy.

With the score 2-1, Jac Caglianone led off the sixth with a line drive down the right field line for a double. Perez grounded out to second, and he seemed to look back to Pasquantino as if to say, ‘I got him over, you get him in.’ The only problem here is that Pasquantino didn’t. He made decent contact, but it was a grounder right to the first baseman. The Royals surprisingly didn’t have the contact play on and Caglianone stayed at third. Sometimes the baseball gods don’t care, and Tanner Rainey bounced a pitch that got away and allowed Caglianone to score without an out.

If you say you weren’t worried about the bullpen, I will not be shy about calling you a dirty liar. Alex Lange came in and looked…great. He only needed 11 pitches. He didn’t get a strikeout, but the Tigers went down 1-2-3. Then with the ninth looming, I wondered who would be in there with Pearson and John Schreiber having gone two days in a row and Cruz having thrown 20 pitches and in parts of two innings the day before. It was Craig Kimbrel, who has more saves than anyone who has ever pitched for the Royals.

He got a groundout and then a three-pitch strikeout. But he walked Zach McKinstry to bring the tying run to the plate. Then he balked, but I guess who cares? He went to 0-2 on Brett Callahan, who fouled two off before a foul tip into Carter Jensen’s mitt gave the Royals the series win and gave Kimbrel his first save with the Royals and 441st of his career.

Sunday - Royals 11, Tigers 7: Salvy Stole a Base

Nothing matters in this game except that Perez stole second base, and it wasn’t the back end of a double steal or anything like that. He got a read on the pitcher, and he went for it. And he was safe. Salvy loved it. The dugout loved it. The fans loved it. It was electric. And it started a massive inning for the Royals where they scored five runs to take a lead after falling behind in the top of the first for the first time in this series. No, they didn’t hold the lead because Mason Black is showing why he was so readily available, but they also never trailed again.

It started with a bloop by Salvy, and then he got a great read on Jacob Waguespack.

I have no words.

John Rave, in there because Caglianone got scratched with a sore ankle, walked after the stolen base, which sort of made it feel cheap, but not enough to stop loving it. Then Tyler Tolbert was hit by a pitch. After Luke Maile struck out, there was a real fear the Royals were going to leave the bases loaded. But Isbel couldn’t be thrown a better ball to drop in front of Javy Baez to drive in two.

Two was good. Putting an exclamation point on the inning was better, and that’s exactly what Nick Loftin did.

Now, I don’t exactly love that he watched that home run as it landed barely in the first row of seats, but it got out, so what are you going to do?

The Royals held that 5-1 lead until the fifth when Lynch hit a pitch count and the Royals turned to Mason Black, who lit the lead on fire. He’s been fine, so I’m not going to eviscerate him or anything, but he certainly didn’t have it. And before you knew it, a 5-1 lead was a 5-5 tie.

Good teams, and teams that are going as well as the Royals, generally get that back. It usually doesn’t happen immediately, but it did here. Loftin walked and Pasquantino put another dent into the wall, this time in right-center. They had the lead back. Perez smoked one down the line to get another run home. You feel good about getting two back after giving up four. Rave wanted to get them all back.

Now that’s a home run you can watch. I don’t know quite what to make of Rave. He’s only hitting .215 with a .282 OBP, but his .462 SLG says there’s some thump in there. I’m intrigued. I’ll tell you that.

Jose Cuas had a tough seventh inning, though it could have been far worse. He had the bases loaded with nobody out and gave up just one. With a three-run lead, you’ll certainly take that. And then Pearson and Cruz shut the door for the sweep.

I haven’t mentioned Lynch’s performance yet. He was fine. I’m struggling to know what to make of him as a starter. He got 25 swings and one whiff. That’s terrible. He gave up eight hard-hit balls out of 14. That’s terrible. But he only gave up one run in 4.1 innings (and then gave up another that Black let in). I can’t say he was good, but I also can’t say he was bad. I don’t know. I’m fine with him getting another start and a few more after that. I still just don’t see it.

But hey, a win is a win, and another sweep is always good.

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Player of the Week

The Royals didn’t lose a single game this week. There are TONS of options. There were four hitters who didn’t have a 100 wRC+ or better this week. One of them hit a big home run yesterday. Another had a huge role in two of the wins. A third was Luke Maile. Sorry, Luke. I could list everyone, but I’ll just give you the two runners-up. First was Perez, who hit .360/.370/.560 with one stolen base. He wasn’t the winner. Then it was Witt, who hit .370/.485/.630. He walked five times and was hit once. He stole three bases. He didn’t win. No, the winner was Pasquantino, who had a monster week in his return, hitting .385/.448/.769 with four doubles and two home runs. He scored six runs. He drove in five. He walked three times without a strikeout. He looked like an absolute monster at the plate.

The Week Ahead

The Royals are off today, but are leaving the country to take on the Blue Jays. I know that we’re all disappointed in the Royals, but the Blue Jays have not bounced back well from their crushing Game Seven loss in the World Series last season. They’re sitting under .500 and toward the bottom of the AL East. Luckily for them, the whole league is terrible outside of like three or four teams, so they’re right in the thick of the playoff race even though they have not had a good year.

Their offense ranks near the bottom of baseball, fighting it out with the Mariners and a few others for fewest runs scored. They just don’t hit the ball out of the park, but they also don’t walk. Their power has been poor overall, and they also sit at the bottom of the league in ISO. Alejandro Kirk has had a nice year. Jesus Sanchez has been fine. Kazuma Okamoto has been a nice signing. But guys they’ve counted on to be tentpoles in their lineup simply haven’t been, with nobody more disappointing than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. I’m terrified that it’s going to happen this series, but he has not hit a single home run at home this season. It’s wild.

Their pitching has been fine. They’re not at the top of the league, but they’re well above the middle in ERA. Louis Varland has been an outstanding closer for them after they got him from Minnesota last year. Tyler Rogers has been a great signing. Spencer Miles has been an incredible find in the Rule 5 draft. They have a Cy Young candidate in Dylan Cease, and they acquired Jose Soriano from the Angels at the deadline. They should be better than they are. But, like so many other teams, they’re just sort of there.

Here are the probable pitching matchups:

• Tuesday: RHP Seth Lugo vs. RHP Max Scherzer

• Wednesday: RHP Randy Dobnak vs. RHP Shane Bieber

• Thursday: LHP Noah Cameron vs. RHP Spencer Arrighetti (probably)

After leaving Toronto, the Royals head to Cleveland to take on a Guardians team that hasn’t quite started their run like they seem to do late in the year. Steven Kwan has found his form, so that’s good for them, but Jose Ramirez is having his worst year since maybe 2019. They acquired Jo Adell, who I’m not sure is actually good. They acquired Nathaniel Lowe, who I think is fine, but nothing special. Travis Bazzana, the number one overall pick in 2024, has been fine. The starting rotation is good, led by Gavin Williams, Parker Messick and Joey Cantillo. And they did acquire Foster Griffin.

Share Inside the Crown

Like the Blue Jays, I don’t know if they’re good. I don’t think they are. They’re not bad either. They’re just kind of there. As of right now, they’ll throw Tanner Bibee, Griffin and Messick in this series against Wacha, Lynch and Lugo. But, as always, this far out, it’s subject to change.

And yet, it was 6-2. I’m not sure you'd consider what Randy Dobnak did good, but he was effective in the four innings he pitched. Carlos Duran did the thing that makes him a risky reliever. But he was picked up really nicely by four other Royals relievers to finish the job. Meanwhile, the A’s quieted things down as well once it got to their bullpen, but by then, it was too late. The two worst bullpens in baseball restoring some order to a weird game is proof that you really can’t predict baseball. But it worked out for the Royals, who have now won five in a row and six of seven against the two teams in the American League worse than them.

The offense gave Dobnak breathing room, but what a weird start.

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So just stay close enough. Seth Lugo wasn’t very good last night, but he made it through six innings to keep the Royals’ uneven bullpen out of the game for as long as possible. When it was 5-1 A’s after five innings, I had it in my head that if they could just get it to 5-3 once the bullpen got involved, they could win it. They did make it 5-2 in the sixth on a Vinnie Pasquantino home run. It turned out they wouldn’t even need that to do enough to turn another frustrating game early into a third straight win against the A’s and a fourth straight win overall. There’s plenty to talk about, but the eighth was a party. You might even call it a rave…a John Rave. I’ll get to him.

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In the end, it wasn’t exactly turning around 102 MPH for a grand slam, but Bobby Witt Jr. hit a 99.1 MPH fastball in on his hands about as softly as you’ll see from him. Carter Jensen tore around third to score the winning run, and all the frustration of the game was forgotten. Witt was the hero, but this game was won in a few spots before he had the chance to knock in that final run. Daniel Lynch IV contributed. Matt Quatraro’s moves contributed. A check swing that wasn’t contributed. A lot was going on that gave the Royals a shot.

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That’s not to say that they didn’t spend plenty of time together earlier in the year when there was something to play for, but I can only imagine the sigh of relief Quatraro let out when he finished writing this lineup down. It’s not perfect, but it just works better when you can get Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino in there to drop Salvador Perez a spot and put together some really impressive balance. It’s a lineup that, at its best, can work a pitcher. They showed that last night, forcing former Royals prospect Mason Barnett to throw 83 pitches in just 2.2 innings before he was chased.

I thought the plate appearances were particularly good last night. Maybe it was the opposing pitcher. Maybe it was getting back home. Maybe it was just one of those nights. But the lineup looked long, and it started early.

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The Royals spent a full week in Southern California. The first half was a lot less fun for the team than the second half. Going from the two-time defending World Series champions to the Angels is just a wild juxtaposition. The Dodgers are struggling right now, but they’re still insanely talented. The Angels, well, they have some good players, but there’s a reason they sit here today with the worst record in baseball. They do still have one very good starting pitcher, for now, and the Royals were a bit unlucky to go against him, but that is not a good team.

I’ll get to what’s coming up at the bottom of this newsletter, but it sure sounds like they’ll be getting two of their lineup cogs back this week. Joel Goldberg mentioned this on the television broadcast yesterday, but Matt Quatraro mentioned there’s a chance they come back as early as today. Usually when “there’s a chance,” it means they’re doing it. The Storm Chasers were rained out yesterday, so Pasquantino didn’t play. The Naturals did play, and Garcia wasn’t in the lineup. So don’t be surprised if those two make their return sooner rather than later, and maybe as soon as today.

Kauffman Corner

Soren and I went deep on Noah Cameron’s most recent outstanding start, his best yet. Then we talked about the rest of the rotation, a reliever making waves, Jac Caglianone having another monster week, some far away prospects and the Field of Dreams Game. Give us a watch right here or listen anywhere you get your podcasts.

The Games

Friday - Royals 7, Angels 6: A Real Royalcoaster of a Game

If you like watching your team win easily, this wasn’t the game for you. But it was definitely an entertaining, back-and-forth game that ended up in the good column for the Royals. Early on, it looked like Seth Lugo might have it going. He retired the first six batters he faced and kind of looked on. I’ll come back to that, but keep it in mind any time you say “but he was cruising” in the future. The Royals offense looked like they were going to back him up too. After a 1-2-3 first, Michael Massey got things going with one out in the second.

That was the first time Massey had ever homered on a pitch out of the zone, but below the zone. He had three previous home runs on non-strikes, but they were all out of the zone, but in on him. That’s not a huge surprise because left-handed hitters often like to get their hands in and pull, but to go get one below the zone is impressive for him.

An inning later, the Royals got a one-out single from Kyle Isbel and then walks to Carter Jensen and Bobby Witt Jr. to load the bases for Caglianone. If you were hoping for a grand slam, well, join the club. If you’re used to Caglianone smoking the ball, it was one of the softest hits in his career, but it still drove in two. Nobody is going to complain.

We can, however, complain about Lugo. He did not, in fact, have it going. It feels like there’s always a hit batter involved in one of these big innings, and he hit the number nine hitters after giving up a double to the number eight hitter. Those things matter. The bases were loaded after a bunt single. He almost got out of the inning, getting Mike Trout to strike out on the 11th pitch of the at bat, but in true Royals fashion, it was the two-out hit that killed them. Nolan Schanuel doubled to drive in all three. Zach Neto singled him home. Just like that, the Angels were up 4-3.

The fourth was quiet, but the game got really entertaining in the fifth. The Royals gave the Angels a taste of their own medicine. It started with a two-out walk to Witt. Caglianone hit the 1-1 pitch a little harder than his previous hit.

Peralta put that one on a tee for Caglianone, who now has 29 career home runs. Only four of them traveled a shorter distance than this one. Yes, that’s right. A 393-foot home run was the fifth-shortest of his career. That made it 5-4.

The Angels scored in the bottom of the inning to tie it up and almost took the lead, but a really nice throw from John Rave was in time to get Trout at the plate. Lugo’s day was done. He went just 4.1 innings with five runs allowed on seven hits. He didn’t walk anyone, so at least there was that. And he also didn’t seem to throw his catcher under the bus or blame the altitude, so maybe there are some baby steps here.

Alex Lange hadn’t pitched since Monday against the Dodgers when he gave up a run in the seventh that ultimately earned him a loss. In this one, he did strike out two, but also gave up a home run to give the Angels a 6-5 lead. Only he got lucky because there comes the offense again. Witt singled and then Caglianone singled and Witt just never stopped running. It wasn’t quite as pretty as the Lorenzo Cain play in the ALCS because a good throw would have had Witt easily out, but it got away and the run scored for Caglianone’s fifth RBI of the game. It’s not that uncommon in Royals’ history, but it was just the 199th in team history. When you consider how many games they’ve played as a franchise, it’s noteworthy. But also, Jonathan India is the last to do it, so, you know, there are layers.

Massey followed tha tup with a two-out single to right to score Caglianone and give the Royals a 7-6 lead that they wouldn’t give up. John Schreiber was fine in the seventh, but the story was Nate Pearson. He got Moises Ballesteros on a groundout for the first out, but then put the “stuff” fully on display. He froze Vaughn Grissom with a curve to start the at bat. Grisson fouled off a slider and a 98.8 MPH four-seamer. And then a curve below the zone tied him up. That was a strikeout. He got Josh Lowe swinging on a slider on the inner edge, but in the at bat threw a fastball at 100.6 MPH and another at 100 MPH even. It was impressive.

Steven Cruz got the ninth and it wasn’t really a problem. He did give up an infield hit, but ended up getting Mike Trout on a called third strike to end the game. The interesting thing about that was that Trout challenged a pitch earlier in the at bat that was clearly in the zone. So they lost their last challenge. The 0-2 pitch that was called strike three may have clipped the top of the zone, but if he had a challenge left, I think it would have been overturned. But he didn’t, so it wasn’t, and the Royals won a game they’ve lost a lot this year.

Saturday - Angels 1, Royals 0: Reid Detmers May Have Made Himself a Royals Trade Target

It’s not so much that they lost this game, but I don’t have a ton to say here. Reid Detmers was stupid good. There are times you watch your team flail away and get shut down and you can’t figure out how. The explanation was pretty easy in this one. Detmers had his fastball working, but his slider was excellent too and he mixed in just enough curves to keep hitters honest there. He was in the zone, but he also got a ton of chase. He threw first-pitch strikes. It was impressive.

At the deadline, the Angels traded Jose Soriano and got back a very good prospect for him. I’d heard at the time that they wanted even more for Detmers if they were going to move him. They didn’t get it, and they didn’t move him. Sometimes games like that have a way of getting a team to do something they didn’t really want to do before. I wonder if Detmers becomes a real target for the Royals this winter. With the top of their system improving, maybe they do give up a big fish for him. He’s under control for two more years and theoretically has a fresher arm because of all that time in the bullpen last year when he made 61 appearances. I’d be interested.

Two other things of note from this one. Pearson took the loss and wasn’t nearly as sharp. I think it’s important to remember that the shape of the majority of relievers is that they generally aren’t that consistent. If Pearson was that consistent, he wouldn’t be on his fourth team with just 185.1 career innings. But he’s now pitched 12 times in his career in the second game of a back-to-back day stretch. He’s given up 17 runs on 13 hits in 9.1 innings with nine walks and seen strikeouts. I don’t know how you train a guy to go multiple days in a row, or if you even can, but that should be kept in mind when building next year’s bullpen. I think Pearson has earned an opportunity, but he’s not an every day guy.

The other was just a ridiculous catch by Tyler Tolbert in center field. I mean look at this.

It looked like he got a pretty good jump, but I was surprised to see the catch probability on that was 70 percent. He had to travel 76 feet in 4.5 seconds to get there. His sprint speed on it was actually 28.8 ft/s which is below his season numbers, but it was still an incredible catch. Craight Kimbrel’s reaction says it all. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

Sunday - Royals 3, Angels 0: Noah Cameron Bounced Back in a BIG Way

What more is there to say about Cameron? He had a semi-rough start against the Dodgers earlier this week. I don’t remember if I wrote this or said it on a media spot, but I thought he was nibbling early and then figured it out only to have his pitch count elevated because that’s what the Dodgers do, and then he had to leave the game and trust his bullpen to strand runners and they just don’t do that.

The Royals have the second-highest rate of inherited runners scoring this season. Matt Quatraro gives a lot of clean innings because they actually have the second-fewest inherited runners, but after posting the fifth-best strand rate last year, they do not have that this year. None of that has anything to do with this game, but when I wrote that the bullpen doesn’t strand runners, I thought that maybe I should check the numbers before making that claim and, yep, I was right.

So Cameron decided just to not get the bullpen involved at all. That felt like a smart move. His final line:

9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 8 K, 1 BB

When the Royals used an opener with him against the Tigers and he started calling his own pitches, I made the point that it’s hard to know which of the two changed variables was the catalyst. Then he started and still called his own ptiches and was outstanding for two games in a row. Well, the final changed variable came yesterday with Jensen catching him. Of all the differences, the fact that he’s calling his own pitches seems to be the winner. I still think it’s really more the pitch mix itself being better, but I’m splitting hairs.

In the five games calling his own pitches, he’s now allowed five runs on 13 hits in 37.2 innings with a 1.19 ERA to go with a 26 percent strikeout rate and 6.9 percent walk rate. There are 59 qualified starters in baseball. Only 18 have a strikeout rate of 26 percent or higher. Of those 18, only nine have a walk rate below seven percent. Any pitcher can have a small sample of success, but when it also comes with 13 hits allowed in 37.2 innings, I have to admit it feels like more than that.

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One other thing before I get to yesterday’s game. The great Sarah Langs had a crazy stat on Twitter:

That includes a game in early June against the Reds and two during this ridiculous streak.

He had it all working yesterday. He threw more sliders than anything in this one. You might remember the cutter had been the number one a lot during thi stretch, but his slider and his changeup did some serious work yesterday. He had six whiffs on the slider and eight on the changeup. Overall, he had 21 whiffs, which was three more than he’d ever had in a game before. I was also intrigued by the fact that his four-seamer velocity was up and so was his cutter velocity. I thought the four-seamer looked different early. There was a pitch in the second or third that looked more lively, so I’ll keep an eye on that moving forward.

But what I think is fascinating about this start for Cameron is that he wasn’t really in the zone. His zone rate of 47 percent was fine, but not what we’ve seen from him in the past. He only had 15 first-pitch strikes out of 29 batters. But it worked. Some of that is that the Angels offense just isn’t very good, but some of it is that he was just excellent. And oh so close to a no-hitter. The only thing between him and immortality was a 65.8 MPH jam shot over shortstop. On one hand, that’s frustrating. On the other, the ball had an xBA of .940, so it was destined to be a hit.

But it was an impressive game. And I loved how he ended it too. He struck out the side in the eighth, using three different pitches to get the three strikeouts. He got a pretty lazy flyout to start the ninth before a relatively easy groundout for the second out. He was 3-0 on Trout with two outs, and you started to wonder if he would get to finish it at that point. But he threw a great pitch on 3-0. Then he threw what I thought was a sort of dangerous cutter on 3-1 for another strike. Trout fouled off the next cutter, but then Cameron threw a gorgeous changeup to get him to end the game and the series.

It was a thorough domination by the lefty. His next start will come against Detroit, who he started this run against. The Tigers haven’t been great against lefties, but they haven’t been terrible, so it’ll be a good test for him. He’s already seen a team multiple times in the Twins, but he also dominates them anyway, so I’ll be curious how that goes for him on Friday night (assuming schedules stay the same).

As for the offense, it was a pretty basic game. First, it was Massey in the fourth.

It was a few years back that the Angels changed a home run to be anything over that yellow line, and it’s a good thing for the guy who reached over because he’d have been banned for life if not. But another good swing for Massey. He had seven hits in 11 at bats this series with two home runs. For the year, he’s now hitting .271/.301/.442. No, he doesn’t walk. But he also doesn’t strike out all that much (though he did have eight this past week). But he plays really good defense at second (saved the no-hitter on a nice play in the sixth) and can hit the ball over the wall. I’m not saying he’s not a guy you wouldn’t mind upgrading, but he’s also not first priority to replace.

An inning later, it was Witt’s turn.

That wasn’t the prettiest home run, but they all count the same, and he needed that. Since coming off the IL, he’s hitting .304/.385/.435, which is more than fine in some ways and fine in others. But that was his first home run since July 9, and since getting three hits with two home runs in a game against the Rays on June 30, he’d had just six extra base hits before this home run. So he now has seven in 112 plate appearances. That is not Witt. Maybe this home run will get him going.

The Royals took advantage of bad baseball in the seventh to tack on. John Rave reached on an error, and then Jensen singled to second with Rave on third to score the third and final run. That hit for Jensen could have easily also been ruled an error. The one other noteworthy part was that Caglianone’s hitting streak came to an end, and he didn’t even get another chance to extend it in that seventh becasue the Angels intentionally walked him to get to Salvador Perez. Cowards.

I think if Quatraro had a real sense of humor, he’d have brought Erceg in for the ninth with a 3-0 lead and Cameron having thrown eight one-hit innings, but I liked the way this one went a lot more than I liked that last one.

Player of the Week

This one was super easy. Witt had an okay week by average and OBP, but even with the home run still didn’t slug much. Massey did give a little competition here with his 3-for-4 day yesterday. And if Schreiber had stranded those two runners against the Dodgers for Cameron, it would have been tough to not give him another Player of the Week. But Caglianone hit .409/.458/.682, and even though his hitting streak ended yesterday, he’s still had a bonkers month in August and drove in just six fewer runs this week than Isbel has all year. That’s probably not a fair stray for Isbel to catch, but it’s still interesting.

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The Week Ahead

If you’re a Royals fan and like to see a better shot at some wins, the start of this week at least has the makings of something positive. The Royals return home, where they’re 29-30 and have won 10 of their last 14. They’ll face the A’s, who are only a half-game better than the Angels, but are in complete freefall. They were once 38-38. They’re now 49-75 and have the worst run differential in baseball.

A lot of it is that they’re badly injured. Nick Kurtz is likely out for the year. Shea Langeliers is out for the year. Brent Rooker is out for the year. Tyler Soderstrom is hurt. Rookie Joshua Kuroda-Grauer is out for a while with an injury that I implore you not to look up. Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs are also out. So are Mark Leiter Jr., Justin Sterner and Jose Suarez. That has left them with a chance to get a look at some players who they otherwise may not have been able to evaluate. The result has been pretty ugly, but, hey, at least they alienated their entire fanbase and are now still a year away from playing in a state-of-the-art ballpark in front of a bunch of tourists.

Anyway, here are the projected pitching matchups:

• Monday - RHP Mason Barnett vs. RHP Michael Wacha

• Tuesday - RHP Jack Perkins vs. LHP Daniel Lynch IV

• Wednesday - LHP Gage Jump vs. RHP Seth Lugo

• Thursday - RHP J.T. Ginn vs. RHP Randy Dobnak

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After the A’s leave town, the Tigers come to town. They’re suddenly in second place after trading Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, but that also comes with a sub-.500 record, and they were just swept by the White Sox, who now lead the division by 5.5 games. The Tigers’ offense is intact, even if their pitching staff isn’t, so they’re still not an easy team to beat, but they still do have the same problems they had that led them to trade their two starting pitchers. It’s a long way out, but they’re set to throw Troy Melton, Drew Anderson and Framber Valdez against Cameron, Wacha and Lynch, though that’s all subject to change at a moment’s notice.

I wonder if I’d keep track of this as much if the Royals were a big payroll team. Eh, probably. But I’m glad I do because the trade deadline shined a light on the Royals’ plan. They do not plan to step back after a terrible season and reset or reboot or rebuild or whatever you want to call it. They plan to compete. But based on what’s happened this year, they’re going to need to spend some money to do it. Even if they make trades, it’s hard to envision a deal that brings in someone who isn’t making some money. We’ll have to figure out later how much they’ll need to spend, but first I want to dig into how much money they have without taking any free agent or trade targets into account.

Let’s start with a look back on the John Sherman era of payrolls. While I do keep my own spreadsheets, I’m going to defer to the sites that track these things even better. And I’m going to start with 2021 even though 2020 was Sherman’s first season as owner because, well, 2020 was a short season, and there’s nothing we can glean from it. This is from the venerable Cot’s Contracts:

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Last night’s loss was more frustrating to me than Monday night’s. On Monday, they got a solid performance from Noah Cameron, and Jac Caglianone had a big day against Tarik Skubal. Cameron’s line looks worse than he pitched, but he was pretty solid and made an adjustment that I really appreciated. But last night was a game they fought like hell to hang around. They trailed when Michael Wacha lost just enough in the seventh to give up a seeing-eye single (and then another), and then came back the next inning to tie it and took the lead on some great baserunning by Caglianone. Then it was undone by the guy who has arguably been their best reliever since May.

But it was also most frustrating because two innings where the offense didn’t execute could have changed everything.

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Some weekends just feel like they went exactly as they were supposed to. The Cubs are a really good team, though flawed, while the Royals are a really bad team, though they have talent. I think if you played a series between these two teams 20 times, the Cubs would probably win two of three like 12 of those. They’d probably sweep three or four times, lose two of three a couple of times and maybe get swept once. So when the Royals lost two of three this weekend to the Cubs, my reaction was a pretty knowing nod, and then I moved on. Of course, I didn’t fully move on because I write the Weekend in Review every Monday for you fine readers.

The things that you look for in a lost season are still interesting. The Royals are moving a reliever to the rotation. He got his first start Friday. A rookie and a guy who is basically a rookie are going to be wrapping up their first full seasons and could use a strong finish. One had a huge game, another did homer this weekend, but it looks like the season is starting to wear on him. The team appears to maybe possibly be getting healthier over the next couple of weeks, but we’ve seen that play before too, and we know how fleeting that can be. But hey, at least we’re finally getting them to give the late innings to some guys with big-time stuff who might be part of something better in 2027.

Kauffman Corner

Listen to Soren and I discuss Jac Caglianone’s big game on Saturday and what his future might look like. Plus, we talk about the Royals signing Craig Kimbrel for some reason, Daniel Lynch IV starting, Kendry Chourio scheduled to start next week (don’t worry, everyone) and a whole lot more.

The Games

Friday - Cubs 6, Royals 4: Jac’s Gaffe is the Difference

We can never know for certain if what didn’t happen would have happened in any situation. But sometimes we can know that a misplay that should have been the third out of an inning but wasn’t led directly to four runs being scored. That’s what happened in the second inning of the first game of the series. It’s not entirely on Caglianone because Lynch, making his first “real” start since May of 2024 (he did go 6.2 innings in relief in June that year) wasn’t entirely blameless.

Let’s just start there. Lynch did walk a batter in the first, but it was with two outs and I got the impression he was working around Alex Bregman to get a lefty. He got through the first with no damage. In the second, Nico Hoerner flew out on the second pitch and he got Ian Happ on a changeup that was left down the middle, but was effective enough that Happ came up with empty. Two outs and nobody on is the bane of the Royals’ existence this year, and it struck again.

Carson Kelly hit a soft single to left. Pedro Ramirez hit a harder, but still not hard-hit single to left. Then Lynch walked Dansby Swanson. The bases were loaded with two outs. That’s fully on Lynch. But he made a good pitch to Pete Crow-Armstrong, who hit a ball to the right side. Michael Massey just needed to go to his left and throw to first and the inning would have been over. But Caglianone did what he did exacly a week earlier and ranged too far to his right, forcing the pitcher to cover and Massey to throw to a moving target. Just like last week, Massey missed the moving target and two runs scored. And just like last week, the Royals let it snowball.

So the baserunners before the error were all obviously on Lynch. He gave up a two-run single to Seiya Suzuki after the error. That was fully on Lynch. But Caglianone’s insistence on going too far in the hole led to Massey making an error that led to runs scoring. If it feels like I’m being too harsh toward Caglianone, maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but that’s a play he’s going to have to learn to just go back to the bag and take the throw from the second baseman on because it directly lead to four runs in a game the Royals lost by two.

I thought Lynch was uninspiring in his 1.2 innings of work with the two walks allowed before the misplay, but I also have no real issue with the plan to put him back in the rotation. The Royals have a glaring need and he wants to do it. Add in that he’s been their best reliever and I’m fine with rewarding him with some starts to see if he can be an answer. He certainly wouldn’t be the first reliever to struggle as a starter, find it as a reliever and be able to get back to a rotation.

I will say that I also greatly appreciated the work Mason Black did in bulk. He threw five innings and gave up just two runs on three hits. Control was an issue, but I continue to be impressed with the movement on his sinker. I’m not sure if it’ll ever click for him and he still only had two whiffs on 30 swings, which is a huge problem long-term, but he did not look like someone who was easy to square up. I’d like to see if the coaching staff can work with him a little bit to figure out how they can take advantage of that movement.

Offensively, the Royals were just sort of fine. They were facing Kevin Gausman in hi sfirst game with the Cubs. I don’t think Gausman was particularly fooling anyone, but he was on his game. Isaac Collins got him for an RBI double in the first that would have likely been a two-RBI double if anyone but Salvador Perez was on first. The Royals were quiet until the fifth when Carter Jensen hit a ball that just seemed to keep going.

It’s been a tough go for Jensen for a bit. We talked about it on the podcast some. I wonder a little if the rigors of catching every day, and likely more than expected, have just started to get to him. It happens. He’s played 574.2 innings behind the plate this year. He got 593.2 innings in 2023, 632.1 in 2024 and 733.2 last season. But there’s something different about doing it at the big league level while learning how to handle the league. I would expect that he’ll do better with this as his career goes on. As for the home run itself, it was tied for the 41st “softest’ home run hit at Kauffman Stadium in the Statcast era. The softest was also against the Cubs in 2024 by Freddy Fermin at 89.7 MPH. It was a ball that went out because of fan interference by…a Cubs fan!

The Royals did make it interesting in the eighth with a couple of runs. Bobby Witt Jr. singled home one and then after a Caglianone double got him to third, Perez hit a groundout to score Witt. But even with Lucas Erceg getting a scoreless ninth, the Royals went 1-2-3 in the bottom half to end the game.

Saturday - Royals 6, Cubs 3: Jac’s Bat is the Difference

Ahh, the duality of man. One day you’re making such a silly play at first base that it ends up costing the team four runs. The next day you’re putting up historic numbers. What Caglianone did on Saturday night was the stuff of legends, and is exactly why you put up with some of the things he does when he’s not doing amazing things.

He went 4 for 4 with two home runs and two doubles and drove in four runs in a game the Royals won by three. So there is a very strong argument that he completely erased his role in losing a game the day before by being the main reason they won the next day. I’ll take that tradeoff.

His 12 total bases were tied for the fourth-most in a game this year. Three players have put up 13 in a game. Max Muncy did it on April 10. Ryan O’Hearn did it on July 7. Kyle Schwarber did it on June 20. All hit three home runs in their game. For what it’s worth, it’s only a matter of time before Caglianone hits three in a game. He and Hunter Goodman are the only two of the 12 who have 12 total bases in a game this year to do it with “just” two home runs. But Goodman needed five hits and six at bats to do it.

He’s the only Royals hitter to put up double-digit total bases in a game thi syear. He’s also second on the list with nine. He’s done that two other times this season. He also has a game with eight. There are just 10 total games this season of eight or more total bases and Caglianone has four of them. Tyler Tolbert also has two. They were his five-hit games, not surprisingly. Now, when we get to franchise history is when it gets really crazy. He’s only the 14th player in Royals history to ever have 12 or more total bases in a game. He’s now tied for xith-most in a game. Only Kendrys Morales, who has the team record with 15, George Brett twice, Kevin Seitzer and Tony Solaita have had more total bases in a game.

And, remember, he got to the number by hitting two home runs, including what I think were two extremely important home runs, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. It was his fourth multi-home run game of the season. If you’re wondering how many Royals have had more multi-home run games in a season, the answer is literally one. Perez had six multi-home run games in his 48-home run season in 2021. Caglianone is tied with Steve Balboni (1985), Jermaine Dye (1999), Mike Sweeney (2005), Jorge Soler (2019), Witt (2024) and Perez again (2025) for the most multi-home run games in franchise history.

I mentioned that the home runs were important. He technically had the game-winning hit when he did this in the first inning.

Okay, first of all, this ball is absolutely walloped. I looked up at the scoreboard for the exit velocity and was a little surpirsed that it wasn’t hit harder. That swing didn’t even seem like his “A” swing and it went nearly 450 feet. The only one he’s ever hit farther was off Bailey Falter when the Pirates were in town last year. But after a sort of annoying loss, it was nice to get on the board first. Since the Royals never trailed, that was technically the game winner.

But I think he really won the game in the seventh. Seth Lugo pitched perfectly fine and got the game to the bullpen. John Schreiber had a shaky seventh where he walked two but struck out two and there were still two innings left for a bad bullpen to cover with what was then a 4-3 lead. Jensen led off with a walk, so you felt pretty good about what could happen, but Witt hit a ball hard but to Suzuki in right. Caglianone came up and got a four-seamer off the plate inside that he took.

Then he got a cutter in a spot he had to crush it.

And boy did he. This one was far more majestic than the first one, and if not for the gratuitous leap by Tyrone Taylor would have looked as far as it was. But what a clutch hit right there. No, it didn’t turn a deficit into a lead or anything like that, but it gave a shaky at best bullpen a little breathing room. You can’t argue with that.

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I haven’t even mentioned his doubles. The first one that drove in Witt from first in the third inning was hit at 106.7 MPH, which is nothing compared to the home runs. The second one in the fifth inning was just 104.9 MPH, but it was hit to left field. Off the bat, I thought it was going right to Happ. Instead, it just kept carrying and carrying and eventually hit off the wall maybe three-quarters of the way up. That’s crazy.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the RBI double for Josh Rojas. I didn’t love that the Royals bunted with Nick Loftin to put runners on second and third for him, but he absolutely came through, and that made it 3-0 Royals. They also got a stellar defensive play from Witt on a Bregman ground ball to the hole where he made the Jeter jump throw. And the end of the game was super interesting to me.

When Schreiber was in trouble, Steven Cruz was warming. That’s no surprise. He’s been acting as the closer. What I don’t know and I wish was asked in the post-game presser was if Cruz ended up pitching the eighth because he had gotten hot in the seventh or if he pitched the eighth because it was the 3-4-5. Whatever the reason, he got through it mostly unscathed. Happ did double, but he got a flyout for the next batter. I’ll update his numbers since he was brought back from Omaha:

36 G
38.0 IP
28 H
42 K (27.6%)
13 BB (8.6%)
2.84 ERA

I don’t know if that screams closer, but it certainly screams effective reliever.

I was so curious what they planned to do in the ninth. Maybe the idea was Cruz for two originally, but he needed 20 pitches and he had thrown into a second inning since he opened on June 26, so I’m not sure that’s something they’re terribly interested in with him anymore. But they ended up going with Nate Pearson. Yes, he gave up a hit, but he got the last two batters to chase for strike three, both on curves in the dirt. I do not pretend like it’s enough to believe, but he’s now thrown 5.2 scoreless innings with the Royals with just three hits allowed. If you believe in stuff…

Sunday - Cubs 10, Royals 2: The Clock Struck Midnight

The Randy Dobnak story was so good that you hoped it would never end. I wouldn’t say it ended with this one, but the lore took a bit of a hit. There really isn’t a whole lot to say about this one, so I may not say too much. Dobnak gave up four runs on 10 hits over five, but I think a lot of what happened was some bad batted ball luck. He gave up hits on balls that were hit 47.9 MPH, 72.6 MPH, 73.1 MPH and 76.1 MPH. He gave up a sacrifice fly that wasn’t hit hard. He gave up a double that had a .050 xBA. I don’t mean to say it’s all bad luck, but in a different world, the outcome for this one was different, at least for Dobnak.

This was always the risk with him. He doesn’t get whiffs, so balls are going to be put in play. But a 33 percent hard-hit rate isn’t an issue. Exit velocity is obviously not everything, but he gave up an average exit velocity of 84 MPH. Again, this is the risk. He gave up a bunch of hits, which led to him throwing a bunch of pitches, which led to the bullpen getting involved.

Easton McGee had been sort of whatever in his first three outings with the Royals. He’d gone 3.1 innings and struck out three with just one walk. But he’d also allowed six hits. In this one, he walked a couple and did get three strikeouts, but he gave up five hits, including two home runs and then led to him giving up six runs. It might cost him his job if they go to bring up a lefty for the Dodgers series. I would love to care about McGee, but he’s one of a dozen pitchers they’ve brought in just to determine if any have a pulse, so if he doesn’t work out, oh well.

There was one offensive highlight from a guy who probably has no business still being on the roster.

I wonder a little if they don’t end up just releasing Marte before the end of the month to do him a bit of a solid and let him catch on with a contender if anyone wants him. I’ve heard amazing things about him in the clubhouse and he can still clearly get into one occasionally. I don’t know if anyone would pick him up, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

I’ll also note a positive for Erceg, who worked the eighth in this one. He had another scoreless inning. He did allow two hits, but neither was hard-hit. He also got some chase, which we haven’t seen from him, and he had two strikeouts. He gave up a hit on a changeup, which made hitters 13 for 24 against it this year, but he threw one that was maybe the best I’ve seen all year.

I don’t pretend to believe that means he’s fixed, but I thought he looked pretty good in this one, and it’s noteworthy that the same team saw him two days prior. I know everyone wants to never think about Erceg again, but if they can figure out what’s going on with him over the last six weeks and feel okay about him in the 2027 bullpen, that’s one less piece to have to find.

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Player of the Week

There was only one two-start pitcher this week and it was Dobnak, who wasn’t terrible in his second start, but wasn’t good enough to be in the conversation. Noah Cameron’s incredible start this week was probably good enough, if not for the fact that there was one incredible offensive performer for the week. Bobby Witt Jr. had a really nice week in his return with eight hits and three walks (against just two strikeouts), but Caglianone was a monster. Yes, it was led by his game on Saturday, but the guy hit .478/.478/1.043 this week. When your slugging percentage requires a number before the decimal, you’re probably getting an award for that.

The Week Ahead

If you think the Cubs were a tough matchup, the Royals get to go to Los Angeles to face the two-time defending champs who just traded for the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner. And I honestly don’t know if this is good or bad for the Royals, but they’ve lost eight of their last nine games. Whether they’re in freefall or not, they’re also one of the two or three best teams in baseball, so this will certainly not be an easy series for a team somewhat going through the motions. The offense is elite. They run out the two-time defending NL MVP in Shohei Ohtani along with a Hall of Famer in Freddie Freeman and many others who range from solid to elite (with a couple who might be over the hill).

Their bullpen has worked, but they’ve got good arms up and down it. Edwin Diaz is back and has struggled quite a bit, but we know what he is when he’s right. Tanner Scott has been outstanding this year. Alex Vesia continues to be good. Jack Dreyer is another good one. They get strikeouts and generally limit walks. Oh yeah, and they’re getting healthy this week in the rotation too, so yay for the Royals.

Here are the probable pitching matchups:

• Monday: LHP Noah Cameron vs. LHP Tarik Skubal (102.2 IP, 2.81 ERA, 2.99 xERA)

• Tuesday: RHP Michael Wacha vs. LHP Blake Snell (3.0 IP, 12.00 ERA, 3.90 xERA)

• Wednesday: LHP Daniel Lynch vs. TBD (maybe Eric Lauer? maybe Roki Sasaki?)
  

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After leaving LA, they go to…LA. They’ll take on the Angels after a day off on Thursday. That’ll be a little more the Royals speed. You might recall the Royals swept the Angels back in April in Kansas City, but they look a bit different. They’ve added a new bat in Moises Ballesteros, but they still have Mike Trout. Wade Meckler has emerged this year, which is interesting for them. They are…a work in progress. They’ve lost 12 of 16, 24 of 33, 59 of 92 and are 45-73 overall. It looks like the Royals will get Grayson Rodriguez, Reid Detmers and Yusei Kikuchi to face Lugo, Dobnak and Cameron, but you all know how hard it is to predict starting pitchers for bad teams more than a day in advance, so we’ll see.

The first is that it takes a pretty impressive pitching performance, or a run of performances, to outshine a late-inning, game-winning home run. That’s what Michael Massey did. And two, I may have been more impressed by Cameron today than in either of his other two outings in this stretch.

I had the feeling in the early innings that he was right on the edge of implosion even though he was never in trouble. And it’s all because I didn’t think his changeup was doing anything for him, and he needs his changeup to do something for him to be successful. Maybe that’s why he utilized the slider so much, but I’m always impressed when someone does the thing even when they don’t have their best with them. He eventually found his changeup, and that led to him mowing down the Twins to end the outing for a second straight start. Let’s break it down.

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None of it changes the season this group has had, but it’s just nice to go through a game with very little stress and occasionally see what the powers-that-be had in mind for this team. In this one, the Royals were up against Joe Ryan. Up until last season, that was a terrifying sentence. But since getting five runs in two innings last September, the Royals have handled him quite well. Including last night, Ryan has a 7.71 ERA in his last five starts against the Royals with 34 hits allowed in 23.1 innings. Prior to this stretch, he had a 1.34 ERA in 10 starts with 35 hits allowed in 60.1 innings. So yeah, I’d say this was a change.

I wasn’t at the park, but you could feel the energy through the television. I think everyone was there to celebrate Dobnak, the July Royals Pitcher of the Month. It was either that or Perez breaking George Brett’s team home run record. But, as I mentioned, it was also the return of Witt, who had last played on July 20 before leaving that game early and then hitting the IL for the first time in his career. And they all contributed early.

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So this is a big miss from me for the Royals. I will get to this shortly in more detail, but what they did (and didn’t do) yesterday has told the whole baseball world what they’re going to do this offseason. And if they don’t do it successfully, I believe that they both should and will be looking for new jobs. They absolutely can still run this gambit successfully, but they’ve chosen the path that leads to jobs being lost. In some ways, I suppose that’s admirable. In others, well, it’s probably foolish. The 2027 Royals have to win, and they have to win with pitching brought in from outside the organization. That is certainly no easy task, which I will get to shortly.

First, let’s break down the deals they made.

OF Lane Thomas and LHP Bailey Falter to Atlanta for RHP Lucas Braun and LHP Carter Holton

As weird as it is to say the Royals jumped the market two days before the deadline, they sort of did. It was very quiet leading up to the deadline, so when the Royals pulled Thomas off the field during the game on Saturday, you knew what was up. The big surprise was that they attached Falter to the deal. I was worried before the names came out that they had lessened the return given that Falter had some money owed to him, but I don’t think that’s the case. When we found out it was Braun as well as Holton, that seemed pretty fair to me. The Braves certainly didn’t overpay, but the Royals didn’t get fleeced either.

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It’s been months since what the Royals actually did on the field mattered. Losses are just more losses. Wins can be fun, but don’t change what’s happened this season. And, yes, this roster is a shell of itself at this point, so some of it is because of that. But spending a weekend in Colorado against the team that had the worst record in baseball should have been an opportunity to get some wins. Instead, the Rockies walked away with a sweep while their pitching staff held an offense that actually hasn’t been bad (not great or anything either) to just eight runs in three games.

Normally I break down each game, good or bad. This weekend simply doesn’t deserve that. I’m not going to ignore the games, but I’m not giving it a full breakdown. Some of that is because there are other, way more important things going on today as the trade deadline is at 5pm CDT. So I’m going to use this spot to give you a couple programming notes:

• Kauffman Corner, which is usually on Sundays, will be tonight at 9pm CDT to break down whatever the Royals do or don’t do.

• Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about the aftermath of the deadline and what it means for the Royals moving forward. I don’t believe you’ll want to miss it, especially if there are moves they don’t make.

• Today, I’ll be doing what I did last year and starting a live chat for paid subscribers. I’ll probably get it going around 3:30 to 4 to lead right up to the “pencils down” jokes, but if the Royals make some earlier moves, it may be earlier. Check your emails and your socials. It’ll be out there.

Because I’m spending so much time on the deadline later, let’s not spend today in the comments here lamenting what they didn’t do before they didn’t do it. I don’t care what Bob Nightengale says about who they are and aren’t moving. He’s been wrong more than me, and that’s saying something. So we’ll see how it plays out and we’ll talk about it tonight on the podcast and tomorrow in the newsletter.

The Games

Friday - Rockies 3, Royals 1: Wacha Was Good, Defense Was Bad, Sugano Was Best

Saturday - Rockies 12, Royals 6: Avila’s Blowup Was Just the Start

Sunday - Rockies 8, Royals 1: Seth Lugo Shows Why Nobody Wants Him

Look, there are reasons that this weekend was so bad that border on excuses, but it doesn’t change that they’re reasons. They had one of the more crushing losses of the season the day before in Minnesota. Colorado is actually a tough place to play. As bad as the Rockies are, they were 24-29 heading into the series at home, which is still not good, but isn’t horrific.

And they remain without three players who they believed would be core players. Another player who had been an excellent contributor for two months now was traded right in the middle of a game. And it was the final three games of an 11-day, 10-game road trip for a team that has been on only one other road trip that long all year.

None of it means it’s okay. They should have won at least a game, but I did want to note all the factors working against them. It still sucked.

Michael Wacha was solid on Friday night, which was good to see. He matched a career-high in changeup whiffs with 13, which he had previously set in Colorado. I wonder if it’s the altitude that makes a changeup better or if the Rockies just can’t hit changeups. It’s a pretty different cast and crew for them since the last time he did that, so maybe it’s altitude for it. But either way. He had 13 whiffs on it and was just hurt by his defense. Michael Massey made an error that led to two runs, but it really was Jac Caglianone’s fault.

On a grounder to the right side that was Massey’s ball all the way, Caglianone went for the ball as well, which forced Wacha over to cover. Massey made the bad throw, so I guess that’s not fair to put it all on Caglianone. But if he had just retreated to the bag, I would assume Massey would have been a better throw to a non-moving target. But two runs scored. And the Royals lost the game by two. So that’s not ideal.

Of course, they were also just one swing away from being the first team the Rockies shut out at home since the Padres on September 5 last year. In looking for that, I did notice that the Rockies shut out the Cardinals at home on July 23 and on the road on August 12. That doesn’t mean anything, but I’ll never turn down a chance to mention a bad Cardinals stat. There aren’t nearly enough of them. Cardinals fans have an unfair advantage when making fun of the Royals. Anyway, Carter Jensen made sure the Royals weren’t the first in almost a year.

That’s a nice swing. As often happens, he’s slumped since his hitting streak ended, but that’s a really nice swing. I’d have to research a bit, but I feel like long hitting streaks ending leads to even deeper slumps for young players. That’d be an interesting one for the winter. Of course, that was it in the first loss.

The next day looked awfully promising. Luinder Avila was great through two, and the offense got it going. They had two on with nobody out in the first, but Caglianone grounded into a double play to turn that threat into not much. But in the second, Isaac Collins tripled and Massey hit a sacrifice fly to drive him in. The third, though, was the big inning. Tyler Tolbert doubled and stole third, but it looked like he would be stranded on third after Jensen grounded out and Lane Thomas popped out in his final at bat with the Royals (this year). But Caglianone saved everyone.

He does seem to be getting his stroke going, which is nice to see. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in a home run derby at Coors Field.

After it seemed like they may not get any and Caglianone gave them two, Salvador Perez tacked on.

It’s far too late, but Perez is hitting .263/.330/.537 since the start of July. He’s at least showing me that he can be a part of a solid offensive attack. My gut is that he should catch one or two days a week next year, and the Royals can just see how he’s going as to whether he should play more at first or DH, but this has become an extended stretch for him. Extrapolate the numbers out over 162 and the six homers and 16 RBIs are a pace of 39 home runs and 104 RBI. Some of the OBP is getting hit a lot, which can’t be predicted, but he does get hit a lot. I don’t know. It’s just nice to see him performing after looking like he simply couldn’t.

The bottom of the third was a disaster, and not because of the result, though the result was too. Avila threw a pitch to Willi Castro as the leadoff man in the inning and looked like he slipped. The training staff came out to talk to him, but he stayed in the game. Then he proceeded to lose all semblance of control and command and gave up two walks and a single to load the bases. He did get a strikeout, but then gave up a double, single and a three-run home run. The next day he was on the IL with right forearm tightness. I don’t care if it’s the problem or not, but this training staff has to go after the season.

The Royals were down 12-4 in the ninth after Matt Strahm, Alex Lange and Lucas Erceg gave up runs. Big surprise!

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Rave led off the ninth with a meaningless home run, but it was nice to see for a guy who might yet factor into the plans.

The sample is impossibly small, but you can’t ignore .313/.371/.688 on a team that has been looking for something to click. Rave added a toe-tap this offseason (similar to Gavin Cross) and has been really good in both AAA and the big leagues. The guy knows a ball from a strike and has definitely found the barrel in the big leagues. He’s barreled six balls out of 24, which is interesting because he barreled six balls out of 110 last year. His bat speed is way up. I’m not ready to say he’s anything, but there may be something there.

And Sunday’s game was another disappointing Seth Lugo start. He’d been better, but this one was brought to you by the number five. He threw five innings, gave up five hits, gave up five runs and walked five. Oh, and he struck out three. I know I said I wouldn’t talk much trade deadline here, but there’s a reason they won’t be trading him, and it’s because nobody wants him at that salary and the Royals can’t afford to eat as much salary as it would take given their rotation issues in 2027. They created this situation, so I’m not giving them a pass, but that’s where we are.

Aaron Bummer came in and was a real bummer as well, giving up three runs on four hits in his Royals debut, which means he fits right in. On the bright side, Nate Pearson looked sharp in his third Royals outing. He’s faced just nine batters in three innings (he got a double play to wipe out a walk in his first outing). Every pitcher they find now is one they don’t have to find this winter when they rebuild this atrocious bullpen. I can’t sit here and say that Pearson is absolutely it, but he’s off to a good start. Steven Cruz pitched a scoreless eighth too. Since his recall in early May, here’s his line:

35 IP
25 H
40 K (28.6%)
13 BB (9.3%)
2.83 ERA

That works. At least there’s that.

Player of the Week

The Royals were basically two pitches away from sweeping the Twins and were dominated by a bad Rockies team for a 1-5 week. That doesn’t lend itself to especially great performances, but some guys actually did have nice weeks. Loftin hit .294/.381/.412. Caglianone hit .250/.308/.542 with a couple of home runs, which was nice to see. Perez hit .320/.320/.560 with a home run. The two best hitters of the week were Tolbert and Rave. Tolbert hit .375/.412/.688, and Rave hit .429/429/.786. Neither played a full slate of games, with Tolbert sitting once and Rave twice, but it’s nice to see role players do well.

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None are the player of the week. I rarely give an award to a pitcher who only makes one start, but when that one start is eight innings with just one hit allowed, I make an exception. Noah Cameron may not have won a game because of an embarrassing effort from his unacceptably bad bullpen, but he does win an Inside the Crown Player of the Week. His representation will likely take this to arbitration hearings when they happen.

The Week Ahead

The Royals mercifully do not play today. They will be home tomorrow to take on the Twins and will get Bobby Witt Jr. back. Maybe that’ll be a spark to get back to some better baseball. We just saw the Twins, so I don’t need to go into what they are. So here are the pitching matchups:

• Tuesday: RHP Joe Ryan (120.1 IP, 3.52 ERA, 3.46 xERA) vs. RHP Randy Dobnak

• Wednesday: RHP Dean Kremer (36.0 IP, 6.50 ERA, 4.92 xERA) vs. LHP Noah Cameron

• Thursday: RHP Bailey Ober (87.0 IP, 4.45 ERA, 4.45 xERA) vs. RHP Michael Wacha

After the Twins, the Royals will welcome in the Chicago Cubs, who are currently the second-best team in the NL Central and are far ahead for the top Wild Card spot. They’ve been very streaky this year, so I guess you never know what you’re going to get from them, but they’re also a legitimately good team. The Royals are, well, not.

If we’re looking ahead to pitching matchups, the Royals will either need to pitch Lugo on regular rest Friday or call someone up, likely Mason Black, to start in Avila’s place. If they don’t call someone up on Friday, they’d need to on Saturday anyway. So it’ll likely be Black, Lugo and Dobnak against David Peterson, Colin Rea and Matthew Boyd. But, especially this time of year, that is very much subject to change.

Share Inside the Crown

I’m in and out with some trade deadline stuff, some freelance stuff and some real job stuff today. I’ll check in, but if I’m being honest, I’d rather leave the comments to you all today. I’ll probably be around at some point, but busy day and we can complain tomorrow about what we all thought they should have done.

But it was bad.

There’s the story of the game, and the story of what really matters here. Lucas Erceg and his inability to put away hitters and games is a problem that can actually impact the future. We know what Matt Strahm is. I’d like to never see him throw another pitch for the Royals, but we know what it is, and we know that day is coming soon enough. The story that really matters is that Noah Cameron had his second straight outstanding performance because this is a team that needs its starting pitching to step up leading into 2027. There was also a mammoth Jac Caglianone home run that actually matters.

And before I really get into the newsletter, I will tell you that I break down the decisions below, but my initial thoughts are that I can’t believe Matt Quatraro went to Strahm in that spot. I understood Erceg, though I was bracing for the worst. I do not and will not understand Strahm in the spot where the thing Strahm does the most (give up home runs) is the one thing that would end the game right then and there. It’s also on JJ Picollo for the build of the bullpen. And it’s also on the training staff with how injuries have ravaged an already bad bullpen. There are many people to blame, but let’s also not forget the guys throwing the baseball when we play that blame game.

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He wasn’t the only oddity of the game. I suppose Tyler Tolbert hitting a home run and stealing a base in the same game is the least surprising thing of the three big surprises in this one because it’s actually the second time this season he’s done it. But it was nice to see him get a couple of hits considering he’d had just one since his 12-for-12 streak was snapped. I joked the other day that he was 13 for his last 27, which sounds a lot better than 1 for his last 15. But on what looks to be one of the final days without Bobby Witt Jr., Tolbert got a chance to start at shortstop and shine. Beyond that, I have to say that Salvador Perez’s triple was probably even more unlikely than Dobnak giving seven shutout innings.

But it was pretty close. I want to dig into Dobnak, but let’s start with Perez’s triple because there’s nothing quite like a big man running.

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I don’t follow other systems closely enough to tell you where the Royals rank. I can tell you the sites that do follow others have this group in the middle of the pack or slightly higher. They’ve done quite well, at least in the early stages, with international signings. I spoke with two different scouts who think this is a system that’s really about to pop. That’s probably a testament to Brian Bridges, who has taken over the draft, but also simply developing talent better than they have in years. The fruits of that aren’t high enough for many to believe it, and that’s fine. I don’t blame you. I’m skeptical myself. But I do listen to others who know way more than me, and people who don’t have any reason to be optimistic about the Royals are pretty optimistic about the Royals.

I’ll tell you that I had no problem at all with the top 11. After that, there were some questions for me, but I thought those 11 were very easy to rank within that group. I still have some questions about whether I should flip a couple of players or not, so I’d encourage it to be more about the realm in which they rank and not the actual number next to them.

1. Kendry Chourio, RHP

There is a world where Chourio is the top pitching prospect in baseball at some point next season. I think that probably still belongs to Seth Hernandez, but anyone else he might have trouble jumping could/should be in the big leagues and off the list. Chourio has it all. His fastball touches the upper-90s but sits in the mid-90s, and the upper part of that range. He throws a ton of strikes, but he’s tough to hit. He has an excellent curve and a changeup that is a little inconsistent, but getting there for him. The name I keep hearing him compared to is Zack Greinke for his ability to pitch. He repeats delivery well, and has the looks of a legitimate number two starter, but I think there’s ace upside. I hope he sees AA soon.

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