Royals Rumblings - News for September 9, 2019

Royals Rumblings - News for September 9, 2019

Mike Montgomery reflects on his tough outing in Miami to Lynn Worthy.

“I thought I battled the first three innings, you know, I probably didn’t have my best stuff,” Montgomery said. “Fourth inning, I just couldn’t stop the bleeding after a couple infield hits. That’s part of the game. I’ve got to do a better job of shutting it down after a couple infield hits. I got guys two strikes and didn’t make good pitches at that point.”

Ned Yost likes Hunter Dozier’s bat in the middle of the lineup, writes Christina DeNicola.

“I expect that and more,” Yost said. “Two years ago, he had fantastic numbers in Triple-A. You can project by the time he gets to the big leagues. He’s a smart kid that somewhere down the way he’s going to be a very productive offensive player. He just needed time to get himself established. He’s made great adjustments this year. ... He just consistently hits the ball hard.”

Yost has also been impressed with how Ian Kennedy has transitioned to the closer’s role.

“For me, 30 saves is quite an accomplishment, especially being a first-time closer, and he’s knocking on the door of it,” manager Ned Yost said. “We knew coming into Spring Training it would hopefully keep him healthier. We knew his stuff was still good, but he was slowed by injuries the last two years and we wanted to try and keep him more productive. Looking at our bullpen, figured that’d be a pretty good arm to put down there and eventually work his way into the closer’s role. He did.”

Jorge Soler invites some cancer patients to the game in Miami, then homers for them.

Ryan Sikes at Kings of Kauffman takes a look at Glenn Sparkman’s troubles.

Clint Scoles at Royals Academy highlights a young Mexican pitcher in the farm system to keep an eye on.

Steve Physioc talks about his award-winning novel, The Walls of Lucca.

The Astros will have a four-man rotation the rest of the season.

Twins pitcher Michael Pineda is suspended 60 games for PEDs.

Johnny Cueto will make his season debut this week after Tommy John surgery.

Is Stephen Strasburg going to opt out of his contract?

The Astros’ pitching revolution comes down to a simple fix.

Why haven’t the Texas Rangers developed more starting pitching?

Adjusting the Twins’ new home run record.

The dying art of the manager meltdown.

Pirates pitcher Stephen Brault reflects on national anthem performances, which he did before a game in 2018.

Lamar Jackson is the big winner from Week 1 of the NFL season.

Bianca Andreescu has had a meteoric rise capped off by a win at the U.S. Open over the weekend.

A huge underwater observatory has vanished.

Why xkcd creator Randall Munroe wrote the world’s most extreme ‘How To’ book.

A discussion of the clothes on Succession.

Your song of the day is Bob Dylan with The Man in Me.