If I hadn’t known any better, I would have assumed the Royals were the team that were partying late into the night and didn’t get into town until 3 AM. They played perhaps their sloppiest game of the season and despite the fact that Gavin Williams didn’t have anything approaching his best stuff, the Royals fell to the Guardians 12-9.
I don’t usually like to go over the game with such a fine-tooth comb, but this game defies understanding without it. So here we go.
The sloppiness started immediately. Steven Kwan took a strike on the inside corner. He knew it was a strike. Carter Jensen knew it was a strike. But the umpire called it a ball and, inexplicably, Carter didn’t challenge. Next up, Jose Ramírez hit a ground ball to third. It looked like a good chance for a double play, but instead Maikel Garcia let the hop play him, and it deflected off of his glove for no outs. At that point, Noah Cameron got a flyout from Chase DeLauter; Ramírez attempted to tag and advance to second behind Kwan going to third. The throw appeared to be there in time, but J-Ram swam around it. However, he appeared to slide past the bag while Michael Massey was holding the tag. The umpire called him safe, and the Royals didn’t challenge. From there, Noah gave up a legitimate single to Angel Hernandez to score two before mercifully escaping.
In the bottom of the first, Bobby Witt Jr. took a one-out, four-pitch walk. Jac Caglianone roped a double into the left field corner that could score only someone as fast as Bobby. Things were looking up!
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Maikel Garcia smashed a single into right that was hit too hard to score Jac, but Maikel inexplicably took a wide turn around first. It didn’t look like he was trying to draw a throw to allow Jac to score, which would have been a mistake given how hard he hit that ball in any case. But that would mean he simply got sloppy running the bases, which isn’t better. The Guardians got him in a rundown, and Jac exacerbated the problem by kind of dancing to no-man’s-land between third and home. Fortunately for the Royals, they missed the tag on Maikel but easily threw out Jac. Jac needed to either aggressively go home or stay at third; the in-between stuff guaranteed he wasn’t going to do anything positive.
Cameron gave up a home run to Austin Hedges in the top of the second, and it seemed like things might get completely out of control. But he didn’t give up another baserunner that inning. In the bottom of the inning, John Rave reached on a bunt single, and Carter Jensen got his second look at Gavin Williams.
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That tied Carter Jensen with Mike Piazza for the most extra-base hits for a catcher in a rookie season. More importantly, that tied the game! Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad after all!
Nope. Cameron gave up another run in the top of the fourth.
But the bottom of the fourth! John Rave led off with a walk. Kyle Isbel inexplicably sacrificed him over. The Guardians went to their bullpen for Tim Herrin rather than risk pushing Williams even further when they needed him in the playoffs. Rave immediately stole third and scored on a Jensen sacrifice fly. Then Bobby singled to right, stole second, and scored on a Caglianone single to right. Maikel Garcia hit a slow roller to the left side; it was clearly going to be an infield single. Jac Caglianone inexplicably took a hard turn around second and ended up in a rundown that ended the inning instead of putting runners at first and second for Vinnie Pasquantino. Still, they had the lead!
Alas, Cameron still hadn’t found his command. Jo Adell doubled, and two batters later, David Fry crushed a home run to left to take the lead right back. Travis Bazzana hit a fly ball to right field, and the wind really got a hold of it. Jac was slow to read how much shallower it was going to end up, and Bazzana got a double out of it when Jac’s dive came up short. Hedges hit a grounder back to Cameron; Bazzana inexplicably took off for third, Cameron tossed it to Maikel, but the team failed the rundown, and the Guardians ended up with runners at second and third. Bazzana then scored on a Brayan Rocchio groundout.
That’s where the score stayed until the bottom of the eighth. Connor Thomas pitched the sixth and seventh, allowing only a hit, but walking no one and striking no one out. Lucas Erceg walked the bases loaded in his inning, but otherwise escaped unscathed. His body language was complaining about the state of the mound – remember tonight’s game was delayed almost an hour by rain and it was a soggy night even when it wasn’t raining,
Massey led off the inning with a single to center. Rave hit a deep fly to the left field corner, and Massey was not prompt about returning to first, so he was doubled off when Steven Kwan and Rocchio combined to pick up the assist. But Kyle Isbel dumped a single into right and Carter Jensen wasn’t going to let the Royals go down so quietly.
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You’ll hear at the start of that clip that Ryan wondered if Massey was hurt, but he stayed in the game.
That gave Carter the new record for most XBH by a rookie catcher in a season. Don’t count him out of the Rookie of the Year conversation just yet!
Nate Pearson got the ninth, and he also walked the bases loaded. While he was at it, Travis Bazzana gifted the Royals a pop-out on the only strike Pearson threw in his first 13 pitches. He was also complaining about the mound. Finally, they came out and messed around with the dirt. Pearson responded by getting Kwan on a soft ground out to Garcia; the play was at the plate. But then Pearson walked Jose Ramírez to force in the go-ahead run.
Matt Quatraro went to get Nolan Hoffman to try and get past DeLauter. Hoffman walked him, too. Then he walked Petey Halpin, who had pinch-run for Jo Adell earlier in the game. Finally, Angel Martinez put a ball in play, a double down the left field line. Halpin was mercifully thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Heaven knows if we had had to wait for a Royals’ pitcher to actually earn an out we would probably still be there.
Salvy crushed a home run to left field with Maikel on to cut the deficit to 3.
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The home run, number 324, tied him with Lance Parrish and Gary Carter on the all-time list for home runs by a primary catcher.
So let’s do a little summarization here, because that was a lot.
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Noah Cameron had his worst start since he started calling his own pitches. He finishes the season with a 4.11 ERA.
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The Royals walked a season-high 13. Each of the last three relievers the Royals used, all of whom likely figure in their plans for next year, allowed three or more baserunners, including at least two walks.
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Six different Royals reached base at least twice, including Jensen’s pair of dingers, Jac Caglianone coming through with three hits, and John Rave reaching twice and scoring each time.
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The Royals outhit the Guardians, but those walks were backbreaking. The baserunning errors didn’t help.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Royals were paying tribute to Denny’s lengthy career all night. I had kind of shrugged my shoulders about it all because I expected it to be very corporatized and saccharine. But, in the end, the tributes all seemed quite heartfelt. I may have even teared up a little. It was a bright spot on an otherwise exceptionally frustrating night for Royals fans.
The Guardians’ magic number to win the division fell to two. The Royals will try to bounce back tomorrow. Michael Wacha (3.33 ERA, 4.36 SIERA) will make his final start of the year; he needs 5.2 innings to reach 200 for the season. The Royals will probably beg him to throw at least that many, considering the state the bullpen has been in for the past couple of weeks. The Guardians will counter with Tanner Bibee (4.35 ERA, 4.49 SIERA). The game will start at 6:10 PM.
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