With Kris Bubic out with some elbow discomfort, the Kansas City Royals turned to ye olde “bullpen game” against the Boston Red Sox. While the bullpen held for most of the game, the Royals offense stayed sleepy and the Red Sox eventually did their damage, beating the Royals in a 7-1 slog.
Kansas City turned to Bailey Falter, whose ERA entering tonight’s game was an eye-watering 10.13. Falter did nothing to dispel the implication that his ERA suggested, immediately walking leadoff hitter Jarren Duran on four consecutive pitches.
Somewhat miraculously, Falter only gave up two runs in his two innings of work. A Willson Contreras single poked across one run in the first inning, and Falter escaped a bases loaded jam in the second inning while only allowing one run thanks to a Wilyer Abreu double play.
In the clubhouse, a visibly frustrated Falter answered the first question from our press corps simply and directly: “I haven’t been good since being acquired.” He took responsibility for not being good, but it sure doesn’t seem like he has any answers, unfortunately.
On the offensive side, the Royals drew blood quickly. Bobby Witt Jr. hit a bouncing single to opposite field. Salvador Perez—who was briefly possessed by Juan Soto during this game—challenged a strike call! At the plate! And won! And then walked! Lane Thomas then hit a hustle double (a questionable send, TBH, but that will be a theme) to tie the game at the time.
Then, one of the turning points happened. Against a tough lefty, Cags hit a dribbler to the right side. It sure seemed that he beat it out on replay. But New York upheld the call, making it two outs. It really should have been one, but a questionable call shouldn’t sink a whole team.
Oh, we should mention Duran here. Duran walked in the first inning. He also walked in the second inning. He also was flying everywhere on defense. In the second inning, Vinnie Pasquantino struck out looking bad against Red Sox starter Ranger Suarez, a lefty. But Nick Loftin came up to bat and swatted a beautiful line drive.
But then, Duran made a hell of a diving play. Out.
In the third inning, Salvador “Juan Soto” Perez walked, again, his second walk in three innings. Now, he didn’t score, but if Salvy can draw some walks, he can mitigate his declining hit tool a bit. Notably, Salvy was in the third spot in the order. Perez was the DH tonight, and Carter “Salvador Perez” Jensen threw out Isiah Kiner-Falefah on a delightful, perfectly thrown ball to second base.
Duran continued his night in the fifth inning with a booming double. But Lane Thomas scooped up the ball quickly and rifled a throw to Witt, who unleashed a beautiful laser of his own to third base and cut Duran down. It was ruled a double, but you should know.
Amusingly, one of the Boston beat writers to my left confidently said “triple” as the ball sailed to center field. Well, welcome to Kansas City. Witt is in charge here, and the only triples allowed here are his own.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, more baserunning bad happened. Jensen hit a leadoff double, a ground ball just fair down the first base line. A Maikel Garcia line drive moved him to third base, but Garcia was thrown out at second base after the relay went home; he had slowed down at first base and almost belatedly decided he would do it. It looked odd at the moment.
After the game, Garcia—through a translator, which is not his standard practice—answered some questions. “We made too many mistakes running the bases,” he said. He elaborated that he wasn’t running hard out of the box, and that first base coach Damon Hollis sent him when the throw came in high. “Honestly, it was a mistake. Coach said ‘go,’ but he didn’t see me coming out of the box.” To be clear, I think that Garcia blamed himself, and interviews through translators always have a sort of margin for error. But it was interesting nonetheless.
Anyway, nobody scored. A fly ball from Witt was too shallow, and a blistered line drive from Perez wasn’t quite high enough to go over the fence, instead finding its way into, of course, Duran’s glove. Duran made a…questionable route, but a leaping catch looked very snazzy.
In the sixth inning, this seemed like a turning point in the game. After failing to push a run in scoring position across with one out, and with John Schreiber coming into the game, things seemed prime to fall apart.
Now, while it didn’t fall apart immediately, it did fall apart—it just took some time, with a baserunning farse detour along the way. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Thomas led off with a single. Cags struck out, but Starling Marte singled to put men on first and second…until Thomas got picked off at third base, the Royals’ second. A Vinnie line drive then ended the inning.
The pitching took a little bit to topple. I mentioned Schreiber—he actually pitched a clean sixth inning. Nick Mears struck out a pair in his two innings of work, giving up one run in the eighth inning off a Rafaela double and some productive out shenanigans. But it was the ninth inning where things really fell of the rails. Fresh from Triple-A Omaha, the Red Sox greeted reliever Eli Morgan with a flurry of hits. And then Duran, capping off an excellent game, smashed a three-run shot to expand Boston’s lead to 7-1. Red Sox social media called it a “dagger,” but let’s be real—the true dagger came three runs earlier.
In the ninth inning, the Royals were blessed with not needing to face Aroldis Chapman. It didn’t matter; lefty Jovani Moran might as well have been, as he mowed down Caglianone, Marte, and Pasquantino with three strikeouts.
A halfhearted chorus of boos percolated through the crowd. The game ended. The Royals fall to 20-29, but are not yet alone at the bottom of the division because the Detroit Tigers are inexplicably also 20-29. So it goes.
