Coming up short

Going for their first series sweep of the season behind their ace, the Royals couldn't carry over their offensive momentum from the previous game. Cole Ragans was outstanding but the bats were duds and the bullpen couldn't keep the game close. Ultimately, the Royals fell to the Twins 5-1.

If you want to focus on the good, look no further than the starting pitching. Ragans went six innings on Thursday, allowing just five baserunners (four hits and a walk), while striking out eight. It was the fifth game in a row where Royals starters have gone at least five innings having not allowed more than one run. That's the longest streak in the majors. No other team has posted more that two consecutive starts like that. Impressive.

Through the season's first six games, Royals starters have posted a 1.62 ERA. That's the second-best mark in the majors behind only the Yankees who check in at a 0.53 ERA from their rotation.

If you want to focus on the bad, there's the offense. Explosion aside on Wednesday, the Royals have scored two runs or fewer in half their games so far. They are averaging just 3.8 runs per game. Last season, they finished at 4.0 R/G.

These numbers will change. We're a week into the season. Yet they provide the snapshot of how the Royals have arrived at their 3-3 record to this point.

Then, there's the bullpen. I don't wanna talk about it.

Needing a bounce back performance coming off an underwhelming Opening Day start, Cole Ragans gave a vintage Cole Ragans performance. He finished his afternoon throwing six innings while striking out eight. Ragans allowed four hits and walked just a batter. The only run that scored against him was unearned when Salvador Perez attempted a back-pick of Kody Clemens at second base in the second inning and the throw sailed into center, allowing Clemens to come around to score.

The second inning was the danger frame for Ragans as he gave up singles to the first two batters he faced. Lane Thomas, an emergency starter in right, bailed out his pitcher with a solid throw to third to cut down Victor Caratini who led off the inning with a single. Thank you, very much: The Twins committed the baseball sin of making the first out of the inning at third.

Around the error that allowed Clemens to score, Ragans punched out the next two batters.

As I wrote, vintage Ragans. The first strikeout was a wicked slider to Josh Bell.

That was a three-pitch strikeout with the first two pitches elevated. Bell had no chance.

Ragans probably doesn’t want to leave that curve in that location, but Bell was not expecting that pitch in that spot.

The next batter, Royce Lewis, chased the high heat

Ragans got that whiff despite barely throwing a single pitch in the zone.

Lewis helped Ragans out in that plate appearance, chasing a 1-1 knuckle curve and then climbing the ladder after watching a higher fastball sail by.

Overall, Ragans got a 37 percent chase rate on the afternoon. And in typical Ragans fashion, he had a slight dip in velocity in the middle of his outing before recovering and finishing strong.

My only nit to pick is that Ragans requires too many pitches at times to get through an inning. The pitch count piles up which limits his innings. But that’s going to happen with a guy like Ragans who gets so much chase and swing and miss. Batters also foul off a high amount of pitches against Ragans. On Thursday, Twins batters fouled off 15 of Ragans' 89 pitches.

While narratives can shift with the seasons, I appreciate the Royals commitment to some basic truisms. For example, when the offense is slow to stir for a few games and then the bats erupt, they quickly go back to a slumber. They’re the Kīlauea of baseball teams.

So was it any surprise that just hours after hanging 13 runs on the board where every starter had a hit with bottom four batters collecting 10 between them, the Royals offense fell dormant yet again? They mustered just seven hits against Twins starter Taj Bradley, all singles and plated just that lone run in the eighth to avoid being shutout for the second time in six games.

The best chances came in the third and fourth innings. In the third, the Royals put two on with two outs for Bobby Witt Jr.. Witt chased a couple of offerings out of the zone to fall behind 1-2 and then, a couple of pitches later, looked at 100 mph right down the chute for strike three.

In the fourth, the Royals alternated singles and outs to ultimately load the bases with two outs for Thomas. While Thomas has had a couple of good seasons, he possesses some fairly extreme platoon splits for his career. He’s hit .220/.287/.382 against right-handed pitching. Remember, he wasn’t originally in the lineup against the righty Bradley. He struck out on a cutter down and out of the zone while attempting to check his swing.

Thomas was in the game because Carter Jensen, who was originally in the lineup at catcher, was a late—and initially unexplained—scratch. He was out between innings to warm up the pitchers and entered the game behind the dish after Salvador Perez was lifted for a pinch runner in the eighth. It wasn’t a surprise after the game that Matt Quatraro said Jensen missed his alarm and arrived late at the yard.

First, it happens. Second, while it does happen, it’s not a great look, especially at this point in the season. It has an impact on the team. After catching a marathon game on Wednesday, Salvador Perez was due for a day off behind the plate and was in the initial lineup as the DH. Those plans were scuttled when the Royals decided to remove Jensen from the starting lineup. Then, once Perez was out of the DH spot, the Royals moved Jac Caglianone there from his spot in right to DH and inserted Lane Thomas into the lineup. That’s not the kind of matchup you want against the right-hander Taj Bradley. Thomas went 0-4.

To his credit, Jensen spoke to the media after the game and expressed what I felt was the appropriate amount of contrition.

“Yeah, I mean, no running from it. Just didn’t wake up to my alarm; slept through it. Don’t really have an excuse, nor should I. You know, it sucks and it happens. I felt let my teammates down and coaches down. I’ll just learn from it and know it won’t happen again.”

I thought Vinnie Pasquantino had the perfect reaction to the situation.

“First and foremost we’re glad Carter is okay. That was kind of the initial thought when we were trying to get a hold of his parents...but once you find out he’s okay it’s like, ‘Alright, it’s a growing moment.’ He’s really young. There are some things that cannot happen, and that’s one of them. He’s going to have to wear it on the chin, same way anybody would have to. It can’t happen. And hopefully, it doesn’t happen again. But it’s one of those things where you just can’t afford to make mistakes like that in this game. Just got to move forward the best that he can.

“He’ll learn from it. Grow up a little bit. We’re here for him, though. It’s not like anybody’s mad at him. Things happen. But you got to learn from mistakes like that. And maybe get another alarm clock or something.”

I’m not going to say that Jensen’s tardiness cost his team the game. I will say that he did not put his teammates in the best position to win. Plus, you never, ever put Salvy in a position like that where he was pressed into defensive action, not just on short notice, but after he caught that game on Wednesday. And Pasquantino is right...Jensen needs to find another alarm clock.

News emerged late on Thursday that Michael Wacha was suffering from an illness and would not be able to make his scheduled Friday start in the series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. Luinder Avila, who was supposed to start on Thursday for the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers was scratched from that outing and will be recalled take the place for Wacha.

Since Wacha will miss the game due to illness, this is a case for truly a spot start for Avila. The Royals will need to make a corresponding move to get Avila on the roster. The team doesn't have a ton of roster flexibility and while a number of relievers have not covered themselves in glory early in the season, I kind of doubt the Royals would be looking to DFA someone to get Avila one start. That means the candidates to get sent to Omaha would be Daniel Lynch IV and Steven Cruz, the only relievers (other than Lucas Erceg) on the roster who have options.

Cruz, after coming in and putting out a fire in the eighth inning on Wednesday, was entrusted with holding a 2-1 deficit in the ninth on Thursday. It did not go well as Cruz surrendered three home runs.

The first two bombs came on pitches on the outer edge of the plate. And both went to the opposite field. Dunno...I didn't think they were terrible pitches. The third home run was on a meaty, hanging slider right down the heart of the zone.

I think Cruz will be alright, but coming a day after three relievers did their level best to set a big lead on fire, it is leading to a number of questions centered on the Royals bullpen. It's fine to ask the questions, but I wouldn't panic just yet. There will be plenty of time for that.

My gut tells me the move to get Avila up will be Cruz going back down. If that happens, Cruz cannot return for 15 days unless there's an injury. So maybe the move after Avila's start so the bullpen won't be short-handed will be to recall Eli Morgan, who was a late add to the 40-man when Drew Waters was DFA'd. Morgan has made two scoreless appearances for the Storm Chasers, throwing 3.1 innings with six strikeouts.

It's very early days and the Royals are still looking to get the right bullpen mix into place.

Jason Hanna is a supremely talented photographer who is responsible for some incredible images of the Royals the last several seasons. If you've seen something cool on social media from a Royals game, odds are that Hanna, as Manager of Team Photography, snapped the shot.

I don't think he's ever taken a better photo than this one on Wednesday, as the rain fell in the ninth inning as Lucas Erceg entered the game.

My social media game is lacking, so I'll note that I grabbed this photo from Instagram via a web browser.

Of course, the ArtButMakeItSports account had to get in on the action.

At least Erceg was able to prevent Wednesday's game from turning into a tragedy.

The Brewers come to town for a three-game weekend series. Here are your updated probable starters:

Fri, April 3 vs. MIL - RHP Chad Patrick (0-0, 2.08) vs. RHP Luinder Avila at 6:45 p.m.
Sat, April 4 vs. MIL - RHP Brandon Sproat (0-0, 21.00) vs. RHP Seth Lugo (1-0, 0.00) at 3:10 p.m.
Sun, April 5 vs. MIL - LHP Kyle Harrison (0-0, 1.80) vs. LHP Kris Bubic (1-0, 1.50) at 1:10 p.m.