Weekend in Review: A New Royals Low

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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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.