Young bombed again as Blue Jays beat Royals, 8-3

Tonight's matchup was Chris Young against the Blue Jays in Toronto. It doesn't take an expert to figure out how it went.

The Blue Jays won the game, 8-3, and the outcome was never in doubt. Josh Donaldson clubbed two home runs. Troy Tulowitzki also hit one. And Ezequiel Carrera, who has eight career home runs, also went deep. This all happened in the first three innings.

Normally, when I write recaps, I'm pretty unbiased. I write about how runs were scored, how pitches were thrown, and why each game played out the way it did.

Which is why I feel like I've earned the right to unleash a couple of hot takes I have about Chris Young, who's final line looked like this: 2.1 innings, seven hits, six runs, and four strikeouts, which match his four home runs allowed.

Why in the hell is Chris Young even starting at this point? There are 130 MLB pitchers that have thrown at least 60 innings this year. 129 of them have a better ERA than Chris Young. He's already allowed 26 home runs this year - in just 60 innings! That's unfathomable, honestly. In each of his 13 starts, he's allowed at least one home run. He's flat-out terrible, and the Royals cannot throw him out there one more time if they expect to be taken seriously by anyone.

Dillon Gee needs to be moved to the rotation immediately. And typically, I hate when people say this, but I honestly think it's true right now - there have to be pitchers in Triple-AAA that give the Royals a better chance to win right now than Chris Young. In just 60 innings this year (as opposed to 123.1 last year), Young has already allowed more runs and home runs than he did in 2015. He dropped to 2-8 with the loss.

...And I'm not even going to mention the fact that the Royals gave Young more than $17 million last offseason. Honestly, I liked the move. He was arguably the team's most important starter last year. They needed starting pitchers. After a rough start to his season, I was okay keeping him in the rotation in hopes he'd get it worked out. But it's very clear now that Young is finished, and the Royals are essentially guaranteeing a loss each time they hand him the ball against any sort of competent offense.

The Royals scored two runs in the third inning when Cheslor Cuthbert hit a two-run home run. It was his eighth of the year. They also scored one in the ninth when Cuthbert hit an RBI double, scoring Hosmer. Kansas City not named Cuthbert managed just one extra-base hit on the evening, a double by Jarrod Dyson. Alex Gordon worked two walks. Kendrys Morales and Eric Hosmer had singles. That's all for the offense.

R.A. Dickey, the Blue Jays starter, carved up the same Kansas City offense that shelled him in the fourth game of last October's ALCS. In that game, Dickey didn't make it out of the second inning, giving up five runs and putting Toronto in a huge hole in the series' most important game. On Tuesday night, he was splendid. Dickey stifled the Royals all night with his trademark knuckleball, striking out eight and holding Kansas City to just four hits.

The Royals are now 43-40. They are 16-29 on the road. That is very bad.

Two pieces of good news:

1. We learned on Tuesday night that the Royals will have four All Star representatives: Salvador Perez and Eric Hosmer will start at catcher and first base, and Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera were chosen as relievers.

2. Brooks Pounders made his MLB debut, throwing a scoreless sixth inning to open his career. In the seventh, though, he allowed a run on a sac fly. His final line: 2.0 innings, three hits, one run, and three strikeouts.

Tomorrow: the Royals look to avoid a sweep on the road when Ian Kennedy, another starter who's struggled to keep the ball in the yard, opposes Marcus Stroman.