Game 3: Throwing it away

After winning the first two games of the series against the Washington Nationals, the Royals attempt to get the sweep was immediately under pressure. They fought back and drew level, giving themselves the opportunity to come back from an early 5-0 deficit. Win a game like that, and it provides a helluva boost. To come back and then lose…well…

The Royals furious charge fell at the finish line. A ninth inning Nationals rally gave them the precioius final run and the ultimate prize: Victory. The Royals dropped the series finale 8-7 in a most painful fashion.

Seth Lugo’s first inning was, in a word, dreadful. The scoreboard describes the carnage: Four hits, including a grand slam. Two walks. Five runs. It was an uncomfortable watch

The data underscores the discomfort. Lugo threw a total of 37 pitches in the first. Nationals hitters swung 16 times. They fouled off nine and put seven into play. The average exit velocity was 95 mph.

The Nationals stacked the lineup with left-handed batters, but Lugo was missing wildly to his arm-side.

Again…That’s just the first inning!

Lugo steadied himself in the next two innings, but only just. He was still spraying the ball arm-side in the second, but got a gift strikeout on James Woods and ultimately walked Luis García Jr. on five pitches, four of which were completely uncompetitive. He was locating better in the third, but an error on Bobby Witt, Jr., another walk and a single plated another run.

At the end of the third inning, Lugo had allowed six runs and thrown 81 pitches. I completely understand the starter’s mentality in that he wants to go as deep into games as possible. Wear one to save the bullpen. I thought for sure that manager Matt Quatraro would show some mercy and call it a day for Lugo after the third. The Royals had chipped away at this point, scoring three runs off the Nationals equally ineffective starter, Jake Irvin. Yet there Lugo was back out for the fourth.

It was a mistake.

Lugo left an elevated cutter up in the zone to CJ Abrams and Abrams hit it out of the yard for the Nationals seventh run of the game.

Lugo actually rallied after that, retiring the next three batters on nine pitches. We could say he saved his best for last, but when you surrender seven runs to the Washington Nationals, that’s not even a consolation prize.

Prior to the game, the Royals announced that Michael Lorenzen would return from his rehab assignment and would slot back into the rotation. He is now listed as the probable starter for Saturday’s game against the White Sox. That means newcomer Bailey Falter will shift to the bullpen to pitch in long relief. I wonder now if the Royals will need to recalibrate a touch. It seems obvious that Lugo needs to take a moment for a reset. Whether he’s not feeling 100 percent or his mechanics are out of whack or he’s just tired at this point of the season…Now that Lugo has signed an extension, both player and club need to get aligned and look to the future is the present is going to be so rocky.

Since the All-Star Break (or since he signed his extension…however you want to phrase it), Lugo haas thrown 30.1 innings and allowed 25 runs. That’s a 7.42 ERA. He’s striking out only 15 percent of the batters he’s faced while walking 11 percent. He has allowed eight home runs. Something is not right with Seth Lugo. The Royals cannot, at this point of the season, keep throwing him out there every fifth day.

I noted that the Royals were chipping away against Irvin. Staked to a five-run lead, he walked the first batter he faced, Mike Yastrzemski on four pitches. The Royals scratched back a run off of a Witt single, a wild pitch and a Vinnie Pasquantino ground out. They added another when Adam Frazier singled going the other way on a 1-2 pitch. A tidy piece of professional hitting.

Here’s where things begin to get frustrating. The Royals had some action going in the second. A single, a walk and a grounder to first put runners on second and third with one out. Witt singled in a run and runners were on the corners. Maybe Witt’s single should’ve brought home both runners. It was a liner to right and both seemed to hold, making sure that it dropped. Still, at that moment the Royals had one run in and runners on the corners with one out.

And Pasquantino grounded into a 3-6-1 double play.

In the third inning, following singles from Garcia and Frazier, the Royals again had runners on the corners and one out.

And Jonathan India grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

The Royals did some offensive good in the fourth. Bonus! It came with two outs. How I love a good two-out rally.

This one started with a pair of gift runners. Yastrzemski walked and Witt was hit by a pitch. That brought up Pasquantino who atoned for his double play sin in his previous at bat by crushing a home run to right.

I only GIFed the swing portion of the home run because…whew…that swing is some sexy power. I mean he got a middle-middle changeup from Irvin and just punished it. Statcast says the ball left the bat at 104.2 mph and the swing itself had a velocity of 72.4 mph. Lies! It had to be a swing of at least 150 mph and I’m fairly certain I heard a sonic boom at one point. It was that impressive.

That blast brought the Royals to within a run. I found myself thinking at the time, “What if Quatraro hadn’t sent Lugo back out for the fourth?”

This game was just…strange. I wish I could find a better adjective, but “strange” will have to do. Based on nothing more than my gut I knew the Royals would get back into the game. I really had confidence they would carve some runs off of Irvin, especially after the first inning. I wasn’t about to go Full Rex Hudler or anything like that, but still, given the way the Royals have been swinging the bats since the All-Star Break, given the way they’ve shown a bit of a spark for really the first time this season and given the stakes of this game—needing to get one over against decidedly inferior competition—I truly did have faith the Royals would score some runs and make this a contest.

After more baserunners and no runs for each team through the middle innings, the score remained 7-6 heading into the eighth inning. That was when Quatraro summoned Luinder Avila to make his major league debut. He was pumping 97 mph heat and coupled that with an impressive curveball. He got Brady House to ground out, then punched out Robert Hassell III on strikes. Avila then got James Woods on a groundout. That’s three up three down in his debut. That was the only time any side went three up and three down in an inning on Wednesday.

The guy showed a ton of poise in an insanely impressive debut. He did not look the part of a rookie. In fact, he looked so good that I wondered if Quatraro would let him handle the ninth.

That could’ve been the plan, but the Royals finally manufactured that seventh run in the bottom of the eighth. Kyle Isbel got it going with a single. He was replaced by pinch runner Tyler Tolbert who swiped second. And then third.

Witt was up with one out. This felt like possibly the most important plate appearance of the season to this point. It feels insane to write that about a mid-August eighth inning PA against the Washington Nationals, but this is the neighborhood where the Royals have set up shop. Opportunities like this against lesser teams are not to be missed. Witt was clearly looking to get something in the air. Reliever Clayton Beeter worked Witt down and away, starting him off with a pair of four-seamers that were taken for a strike. Down 0-2, Beeter delivered a slider in the same location as the four-seamers. Witt did not have the luxury of taking this pitch, yet was still able to drop the head of the bat to get under it and loft it to right. It was barely deep enough, but Tolbert has wheels and he slid across home with the tying run.

It was at this moment that I finally started to believe. I truly thought the Royals were going to win this game.

There is no rhyme or reason to the Carlos Estévez closing experience. Earlier this month, he entered the game in extra innings when the Royals broke it open against the Toronto Blue Jays and held a five-run lead. He promptly allowed two runs. Last weekend in Minnesota, he was summoned to protect a two-run ninth inning margin and responded by pitching a clean inning—three up and three down with two punchouts. But he also gave up the walkoff home run in the 11th, a day later.

On Wednesday, there was no possibility for a walkoff, but Estévez did bring the adventure. A one-out double started the trouble. With two outs, he walked Nathaniel Lowe. I’m fairly certain he was pitching around Lowe. If he wasn’t, it was just a terrible lapse at an important moment. If he was pitching around Lowe, it backfired.

The next man up, Daylen Lile, went the opposite way on a meaty 2-1 changeup and brought home the go-ahead run. And that was that.

I’m not sure what the Royals do with Estévez at this point. He’s your closer and while most of his outings bring a certain degree of discomfort, he’s had some success. But along with the aforementioned walkoff in Minnesota, he was also behind the Marlins walkoff in extras immediately after the All-Star Break. Estévez has had a direct hand in three of the Royals 11 losses in the second half.

Late inning losses are never pleasant. Especially when you’re trying to claw your way back into contention. Maybe the Royals dig their way out of this, but it sure felt like, on a steamy Wednesday afternoon in Kauffman, that their epitaph has been written.