Noah Cameron had a rough start, the bullpen couldn’t hold it together, and finally, the defense let the Royals down. In a game where the Astros scored seven of their runs via home run, they finally defeated the Royals with a groundball hit right to Bobby Witt Jr. that the Royals failed to convert into a double play. The final score was 8-7 in favor of the bad guys.
As described in the game discussion post earlier, Noah Cameron has been one of the best pitchers over the last month. You’d be forgiven, however, if you didn’t believe it from watching him tonight. On the one hand, he pitched three hitless, walkless innings to start the game. But he gave up a two-run home run in the fourth and another in the fifth. He gave up two more hits after that and got pulled for John “Gas Can” Schreiber.
The first inning went poorly for the Royals, who went down in order on only eight pitches. But starting in the second, they began to make some noise. Jac Caglianone took a one-out walk and went to third on a Salvador Perez groundout. Michael Massey came through with an RBI single, and the Royals had their first lead.
In the bottom of the third, Kameron Misner led off with an infield single. Carter Jensen grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Bobby Witt Jr. managed to flick a ball off the end of his bat into right field. Vinnie Pasquantino came through with an RBI single. That sent Bobby to third, where he was able to score on a passed ball a few pitches later. A 3-0 lead with Cameron on the mound felt pretty secure, but that’s when the first two-run bomb came. Lane Thomas smacked a solo shot into the fountains the next inning, and all seemed well again. But that’s when the second of the two-run bombs came against Cameron.
The Royals failed to score in the fifth, so the Astros decided to take the lead in the sixth as the wind picked up and the clouds loomed even more. Brice Matthews belted a solo home run off of ol’ Gas Can. Schreiber otherwise did yeoman’s work, striking out 3 in his 1.2 innings of relief.
The Royals came back with a vengeance in the bottom of the sixth. Salvy singled to center and Massey doubled him to third. Thomas took a walk to load the bases for hometown-hero-in-waiting Misner. Unfortunately, we’re all still waiting because he popped up a 3-2 pitch that may have been ball 4 for the first out. But the hometown hero we already knew we had, Carter Jensen, smoked a changeup at 100.8 MPH into left center to clear the bases and give the Royals a 7-5 lead.
That’s just a really pretty swing. Going the other way against a changeup pitcher is almost always the right idea, and Carter did it perfectly.
The Royals tried to score more after Bobby hit a pop-fly double to right-center that could only advance Carter to third. Unfortunately, Isaac Collins was batting in the three hole after Vinnie Pasquantino appeared to injure his wrist – more on that in a minute – in his previous at-bat. Collins flew out to shallow left, and the Royals tried to score Jensen from third anyway. He was thrown out handily. Still, with horrible storms on the radar, all the Royals needed to do was hang on to that lead for a little while longer.
Daniel “Danny Drips” Lynch IV came in to pitch the seventh and performed a clean inning. By this point, the grounds crew had the tarp uncovered and were all standing behind it, ready to start rolling it out at a moment’s notice. The Royals went quietly in the bottom of the seventh. Royals fans were looking nervously at the tarp, hoping it would come on the field sooner or later, and we could all call it an early night with a Royals victory.
Instead, out of the bullpen came Matt Strahm-boli. If you’ve been paying attention, you knew that he’d allowed solo home runs in each of his last four appearances, five of his last six, and six of his last eight. But with a two-run lead, a solo home run couldn’t do them in. So he hit a batter before allowing Jose Altuve to go yard and re-tie the game. It wasn’t what you’d call a rainmaker, but it got the job done. Strahm managed to get the next batter out, but the rain immediately followed, and so did the tarp. Just two batters too late.
This is as good a time as any to talk about Vinnie, I guess. After he hit a pop-up in the bottom of the fifth, he immediately reacted as if something had happened to his right hand. He held it gingerly as he jogged to first, and when he got back to the dugout, he immediately went up the tunnel. The Royals later reported that it was a right hamate injury. It’s unclear whether it’s broken, but hamate injuries can be a massive problem for hitters.
Typically, even once a hitter returns from the IL, they will not have any power in their swing until the following season. Blake Mitchell had a hamate injury in Spring Training last year. He was able to come back at the beginning of May, but finished the year with only 13 extra-base hits in 60 games. For comparison, he had 37 in 111 games the year before, and he’s already got 18 in 53 games this year. It’s possible he could return to form; Corbin Carroll had a hamate injury in Spring Training this year, and he’s been just fine since returning. But I wouldn’t advise you bet on it.
The Royals can ill afford to lose Vinnie, as he was finally getting hot. It’s an arbitrary endpoint, but he was slashing .289/.379/.408/.787, good for a 116 wRC+, over his last 20 games entering tonight. If you shrink the sample, the numbers can get even higher. But now it seems like the Royals might not have the real Vinnie until sometime next year. If they were still on the fence about selling after the Rangers series, they probably shouldn’t be anymore. Considering how many potential buyers there are and how few teams know whether they should be sellers or not, perhaps the Royals could get a good deal done if they wanted to jump the market. Of course, they’d probably need to trade Michael Wacha and/or Seth Lugo because Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic have each suffered additional setbacks in their returns over the last week, and we’re awaiting the results of additional testing before we can even begin to know what their new timelines might be.
When the rain delay ended, Alex Lange-xiety came to pitch as the only reliever who had yet to appear in the series. He got the final two outs of the eighth, but the Royals did nothing in the bottom half. Lange came back out for the ninth because, yeah, everyone else had already pitched too much or in this game. Maybe Beck Way or Eli Morgan could have pitched, but they’re not exactly anyone’s top choice in a close game. Lange walked pinch-hitter Joey Loperfido to start the inning, then got Jeremy Peña on a shallow fly to left. He convinced Yordan Alvarez to pound one into the ground, but it hopped over Caglianone at first.
With runners at first and third, the Royals played the infield back, hoping for a double play ball. And that’s exactly what they got, an easy roller straight to Witt. He threw to second for the first out, but Loftin yanked the throw to first, and Caglianone couldn’t get to it. The broadcast crew wondered if Caglianone should have caught it, and I don’t know, maybe if he had been able to wait a moment longer before entering his stretch, but the guy has primarily been a right fielder for about a year now, and I think that would be a tough play for any first-baseman. It’s only because he’s a lefty that he even got close to it. I’m not going to harp on him whiffing on what was truly an awful throw by Loftin.
The Royals looked like they might tie it again in the bottom of the ninth when Bobby hit a one-out double. Collins, still batting in the three hole, smacked a liner over Peña’s head at short, but he made an amazing leap and caught it. Unfortunately, Bobby was trying to get a good break so he could score. Peña was able to lob it to second to complete the Astros’ double play and end the game. Because, of course, the Astros were able to make the far more difficult game-saving double play. When it rains, it pours.
Anyway, the Royals get to try to avoid the sweep tomorrow. A phrase we’ve had to speak or type far too many times this year. Spencer Arighetti (2.21 ERA, 9.1% K-BB%) will go for Houston. Stephen Kolek (3.14 ERA, 12.2% K-BB%) will take the ball for KC. The game is scheduled for 1:10 Kauffman time, if you care to keep watching.
(@ShowCaseShabazz) 
