:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60558987/493963747.0.0.0.jpg)
Back in 1874, Henry Chadwick published his scoresheet, his way to keep track of the things that happened during a baseball game. Certainly, the game has changed since then. An interesting tidbit of that original scoresheet was that a walk was not considered a thing that should be fully attributed to a batter, which it isn't today anyway. On this scoresheet, a walk was considered an error by the pitcher, and in some ways we still think of it that way. However, on Chadwick's scoresheet, a walk was scored basically equivalent to a batter reaching on a defensive error. Perhaps this is why the Royals are so averse to the walk. They don't want to win the game because of errors.
Tonight, Yordano Ventura makes his return to the hill to face Michael Wacha in the final game of the 4 game series against the hated rival Cardinals. Ventura missed one start due to elbow stuff. Ventura's previous start was May 26th against Houston. He gave up 5 runs in only 2 2/3 innings. Overall, Ventura still has a season ERA/FIP/xFIP of 3.45/3.41/3.19, so hopefully he'll be better than his last start. Unless there really is something wrong with his elbow. We like Ventura. I hope the baseball gods are merciful.
Wacha, on the other hand, is doing basically exactly the same thing that he did last year, just better. His walk rate is a little bit better. His home run rate is better. I'm told by Brooks Baseball that Wacha is a 4seam/change kind of guy with an occasional curveball and cutter. Wacha's fastball and changeup velocities have dipped in his past two starts by 2 miles per hour. While we don't like the Cardinals, seeing more young pitchers go down would be sad. I hope the baseball gods are merciful.
We might see a bit of a pitching duel tonight. Here's the lineup for the evening. The lineup that we thought would be good but isn't.
From May To Now Lineup: Aoki 9, Infante 4, Hosmer 3, Butler DH, Gordon 7, Perez 2, Cain 8, Moustakas 5, Escobar 6, Ventura 1. #royals
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) June 5, 2014