Bombed out in the Bronx

A three-hour rain delay on Sunday had strong “governor is considering giving a stay” vibes where you knew in the end the bastard was going to flip the switch and finish the job. That’s exactly how the Royals road trip ended on Sunday in New York: A series sweep at the hands of the Yankees to cap a roadtrip without a victory, piling on to a now seven-game losing streak. The Royals now have part-ownership of the worst record in baseball.

I’m not sure I’ve witnessed many starts that were equal parts frustrating and excruciating as Ragans’ outing on Sunday. Here’s how he opened the day:

Walk
Home Run
Walk
Strikeout
Walk
Walk
Sacrifice Fly

Ragans couldn’t find the plate and it felt like the first inning took hours. He needed 34 pitches to find three outs and was actaully helped by Austin Wells going after the first pitch he saw for that sacrifice fly. Aaron Judge also saw only one pitch. He hit the home run. Naturally.

So here’s something weird: Beginning with third pitch to Amed Rosario (who was the walk just ahead of the sac fly), Ragans uncorked nine four-seamers in a row to close out the inning. Then, to start the second, he opened with another eight four-seam fastballs. That was 17 consecutive four-seamers.

Do you want to see something gross?

That was Ragans’ pitch plot for the first inning. My goodness was he yanking just about everything to the glove side. Except for the changeups that weren’t running back over the plate. Then, there’s that cluster of pipe shots, one of which left the yard. This is a chart from a guy who is entirely misaligned.

The lefty finished the day with one out in the fifth. His final linescore reads like a fifth starter’s:

4.1 IP, 4 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 8 BB, 6 K

He threw 97 pitches, 49 of them for strikes. He also gave up a couple more home runs.

That put a capper on a series where the Royals were outscored 24-6.

The games took a bit of a backseat to the drama that played out on social media on Saturday when Salvador Perez took to two platforms to express his displeasure at being given a day off in what manager Matt Quatraro said was a “mental breather.”

Let’s rewind ourselves for a bit of perspective. Perez, as we all know, played in 155 games last year. In 89 of those games, he started behind the plate. He made 28 starts at first with the rest of his appearances as the designated hitter. Usually, when the Royals had a day game after a night game, Perez would be the DH. Up until Saturday, he had been in the lineup for every single game. He was hitting .160/.210/.307.

This was how Quatraro addressed the situation on Saturday:

“Just looking at the way things have gone, he’s played in every game. Day game after night game, Carter was going to catch today. And Salvy’s been struggling a little bit. Just try to give him a little mental breather.”

Made sense to me. But I'm not the one Quatraro is sitting down for a day. Perez, after not appearing in Saturday’s game, took to Twitter and Instagram:

Both screenshots are from Dan Lucero on Bluesky.

As you would imagine, as everyone is now required to form an ironclad opinion in the moment, speculation ran amok that Perez was returning fire after Q had lost the clubhouse. I’m not on social media enough to know otherwise, but the posts from Perez did feel out of character from The Captain. It felt angry. Mix in the fact that there’s a segment of this fanbase that has never taken to Quatraro as manager and the toxicity levels start to inch up.

Alas…much ado about nothing.

Here’s Perez on Sunday:

“I got reached out [to by] a lot of people yesterday after the game, and they sent me what [Quatraro] said. I don’t have any problem with [Quatraro]. We talked today. I know people were surprised I didn’t play yesterday, but everybody has an off-day in the big leagues. You know, it’s kind of hard to play 162 games, especially behind the home plate.”

Perez continued: “Everything is fine. He didn’t mean to say that. People understood that in the wrong way. That’s the easy way. Social media, you guys know how it is. It’s kind of crazy sometimes. He didn’t mean to say that I need a mental breather. He knows me, you guys know me. I like to be in the lineup every day. And I like to play and have fun.”

And the manager:

“We’re in a good spot,” Quatraro said. “I think what stands out to me, the ‘mental breather,’ was, from my perspective, telling him the night before he wasn’t playing. So he can take some off his plate preparing for our starting pitcher and the game plan, the opposing starting pitcher. And just being a player every day, there’s a tremendous amount that goes into that for a guy like him. I think that’s where that became a little bit misconstrued.”

Draw whatever conclusions you like, but I’ll take this at face value. Quatraro said “mental break” which caused a bit of concern for those closest to Perez. Perez responded in a way that, honestly, was not helpful, but given the messages he was probably receiving, was perhaps understandable. He was back in the lineup on Sunday with Elias Díaz, freshly recalled from Triple-A behind the plate. When a team with expectations is mired in a losing streak, any fissures, real or imagined, are magnified. Social media does not help in any way. Perez probably thought he was providing a blanket answer to a question that was annoying to him, but he should know this. The "Q has lost the clubhouse" takes were coming in fast on Saturday night. Sorry for those of you who don't like Quatraro, but I don't think that's the case.

With Díaz coming up, the Royals are now carrying three catchers. I think that, given Perez’s early season struggles and some hip soreness he’s been dealing with for the last few seasons, having three backstops on the roster is good for the team, and Perez.