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Royals lefty Daniel Lynch did not have a good time in his second career MLB start, failing to get out of the first inning after yielding eight runs to the White Sox on Saturday night. The lefty walked just one but was hit hard for seven hits, including a home run to Danny Mendick.
It was just the eighth time in the last ten years a Royals starter has failed to get out of the first inning, and some of those were due to injuries.
Royals starts, less than one inning since 2011
| Date | Pitcher | Opponent | Innings | Runs Allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Pitcher | Opponent | Innings | Runs Allowed |
| May 16, 2011 | Kyle Davies | Cleveland | 0.1 | 2 |
| May 13, 2012 | Danny Duffy | Chicago | 0.2 | 0 |
| June 6, 2012 | Felipe Paulino | Minneotsa | 0.2 | 1 |
| May 31, 2014 | Aaron Brooks | Toronto | 0.2 | 7 |
| September 6, 2014 | Danny Duffy | New York | 0.0 | 0 |
| Septmeber 2, 2017 | Onelki Garcia | Minnesota | 0.1 | 4 |
| September 4, 2018 | Danny Duffy | Cleveland | 0.2 | 3 |
| May 8, 2021 | Daniel Lynch | Chicago | 0.2 | 8 |
After the game, Mike Matheny seemed a bit perplexed that Lynch could get hit that hard, but did seem to suggest one possibility.
Royals manager Mike Matheny on Daniel Lynch tonight: “You could almost tell anybody what pitch is coming and what location and still not have those kind of results.
— Lynn Worthy (@LWorthySports) May 9, 2021
One Royals fan looked at the tape, and did find some evidence that perhaps Lynch was signaling what was coming to White Sox hitters.
While I made Lynch's overlay stuff on his MLB debut game, I found his tipping pitch on slider. His motions when he threw Changeup, Curve & Fastball are similar, but slider motion is kinda different. Especially on glove side. pic.twitter.com/ZnpA7Xa615
— 준 Jun (@Royals_Jun) May 9, 2021
Matheny seemed to confirm the same this morning.
Mike Matheny seemed to acknowledge that Daniel Lynch was tipping pitches. Says focus is now on fixing issues in a "timely manner."
— Josh Vernier (@JoshVernier610) May 9, 2021
On rotation: Kris Bubic is "part of that conversation," said Matheny. "He was fantastic (on Saturday). It's the best I've seen him." #Royals
Mike Matheny this morning on if anything really stood out as he and the coaches re-watched Daniel Lynch's start:
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) May 9, 2021
"Yes. We'll leave it at that. There were some things. Without divulging too much, absolutely some things that we need to get cleaned up."#Royals
Lynch threw 34 pitchers and did get five whiffs, two of them on his slider, so perhaps White Sox hitters didn’t always know what to expect. But they did hit him hard, which is a lot easier to do once you know what’s coming (just ask the Houston Astros!)
made a scatter-chart of the exit velos/xBAs for the Lynch outing. The two outs get green circles. There wasn't a lot of cheap hits during his outing. For the sake of comparison, the scatter for the first outing (the 4 hits get red circles). That one, the hits were mostly hard-hit https://t.co/eiCrXmELG0 pic.twitter.com/Pz66ufDhPX
— Brandon H. (@BHIndepMO) May 9, 2021
If Lynch was tipping his pitches, that may be a bit encouraging that his performance can be corrected rather easily. Let’s hope the lefty can make an adjustment and pitch up to the potential that so many talent evaluators see in him.