Before I talk about the actual game, let me jump on my soapbox. In the second half of the contest, the Fox broadcast booth – featuring Adam Amin, Adam Wainwright, and AJ Pierzynski in one of the funniest and most informative broadcast booths you’ll ever see – was doing a game interview with Atlanta pitcher Chris Sale. During the intermission there was a blown call at second base, Maikel Garcia fielded a ground ball trying to step on second and throw to first for a double play. Normally, we’d be talking about the amazing turnaround the Royals were working to allow to happen but Garcia didn’t take the second step before he started. The runner, Ronald Acuña Jr., would have been safe. The booth saw the replay and immediately started telling Chris Sale that Atlanta should challenge the game. In the end, Atlanta was not allowed to challenge – maybe because it took too long, but it was never cleared by the referee – and no harm was done.
To be clear, I don’t think the announce booth was trying to help Atlanta cheat. I think they didn’t think their actions through. But that’s as big a problem as any of these game discussions – which is the wrong way to watch the game and a bad way to communicate with someone – that something like that can happen unintentionally. Absolutely MLB it can’t let these continue now that we have seen this happen. It was always a bad idea, but now it’s a bad idea that can question the integrity of the game. If Atlanta had challenged and won, it would have looked like they cheated to do so even if the call would have been correct and if Chris Sale had not passed on what the announce booth was telling him.
Advertising
Okay, now I guess I have to talk about the game.
Michael Wacha was good for six innings in this one. He struck out seven while giving up one walk and allowed three hits — all singles — in six innings. The Royals needed him to be good because the offense was still sluggish. Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg pitched the seventh and eighth innings and did their jobs as well. It was surprising to see Erceg pitch eighth against the bottom of Atlanta’s order because he was often used against tight ends in the lineup, but I think Q thought he could go innings instead of a problem with three proven backends in his bullpen.
Salvador Perez got the Royals their first game of the year with a leadoff shot in the seventh inning.
That was a wall hit, but it hit 105.8 MPH off the bat of the captain to go a measured distance of 390 feet. I think Truist park has deep left field.
Advertising
The Royals scored two runs in the eighth. Maikel Garcia took just one walk, going to third on Bobby Witt Jr. who broke, and scored Vinnie Pasquantino to first, an error by Matt Olson. A lot of people complained about the contact game last year, but it was important to give some points this time. If Maikel doesn’t run, he can’t score there because Olson didn’t kick the ball enough. Indeed, the thought of Garcia going home would have caused Olson to rush the game and lead to the first error. So, whenever you see a player play again this year, remember, sometimes it works!
And now the bad, bad news.
We talked before the game about how Reynaldo López’s velocity had been down all season, and it had to be a big deal for Atlanta. You wouldn’t know it watching him slide tonight, as he was back in the 95-96 MPH range with his fastball for most of the game. That gave me hope that maybe Carlos Estévez would get his velocity back in the ninth inning since it was already the regular season. That hope was short-lived as the first pitch he threw was a fastball that missed the hand and only reached 90 MPH. The result was predictable from there.
Estévez walked Drake Baldwin, then gave up a single to Matt Olson. Miraculously, he got Austin Riley to pop out at second, and you started to hope he could get out of it. That hope was also short-lived. Mike Yastrzemski singled to center to drive in the first run and move the bases to first and third. Estévez lost all control and walked Ozzie Albies in the figure four. My main guess is that he realized that his lack of speed was going to get in the way of the job, and he started throwing.
You will notice in that picture that all of his papers missed the hand and/or the top. The first gap is not visible; far away.
Advertising
He fired a 92 MPH fastball down the middle to Michael Harris II, and was very lucky that it was hit right down the middle. Estévez was unlucky because it hit him instead of Witt for the game ending double. It turned out to be an infield single that left the bases loaded and tied the game.
Next up was Dominic Smith. Smith has been a great professional since 2017. He has not set a quality start time outside of 2020. Estévez threw him two pieces on the ground, then grabbed the corner at a fast pace. He threw another fastball that was called a ball, but Salvy challenged it because the Royals still had both of their problems, and why? It happened just once a strike. So Carlos threw another ball into the ground. Knowing that the fourth ball would come home in the game-winning run, he threw a fastball up the middle. Dominic Smith blasted it to the right; game over.
Carlos Estévez currently has a 162.02 ERA and a 60.00 FIP. He allowed four hits and two walks in the third inning. Nor were the punishments cheap; all four were considered hard hit. Three were over 100 MPH exit speed. You don’t want to overplay one game, but this is a game that’s pretty similar to everything we’ve seen during Spring Training. I’m not ready to write off Estévez as a viable reliever, but he won’t be close until his velocity and command return.
Every sign in his summary that means anything is very rewarding. He may not be washed, but he can’t screw up now. He needs to be brought in just for the blast or he needs to be diagnosed with an injury. The latter would be the best solution, because I don’t think you can have him at low levels with metrics like that, and if there’s any hope he’ll find his mojo, it’s almost always by lowering the frequency a bit.
Advertising
I’m not going to be mad at Matt Quatraro for sticking with his boyfriend for once. Estévez has been telling him that everything is fine, and Quatraro chose to believe him and hope that everything will come together for the regular season. It didn’t, and it was too bad for Quatraro to ignore. Estévez won’t be getting a second chance anytime soon. I don’t know if Q should go with Lucas Erceg, Matt Strahm, or some other closer by committee. Whatever the answer, it won’t involve Estévez. Not now.
To put things on the bright side, the Royals lost their opening series the last two years, but finished with more wins than losses in their finals. They are now 0-2, but that means nothing at the end of the season.
Tomorrow will be the first game of the day for the Royals as they look to avoid a sweep in Atlanta. Seth Lugo will pitch for KC; Grant Holmes will go to Atlanta. The game will begin at 12:35 Royals time and will be broadcast on Royals.TV.
#Royals #lose #style