Royals Rumblings - News for August 22, 2022

The road was not kind to the Baby Royals.

By Max Rieper@maxrieper Aug 22, 2022, 8:23am EDT

The Royals followed up a winning homestand by dropping six of seven on their road trip, writes Anne Rogers.

“That’s how crazy baseball is; in a blink of an eye, it can turn,” said infielder Nicky Lopez, who has found his voice as one of the clubhouse leaders despite still being relatively young at 27 years old. “We had a rough road trip. We’ll go back home and try to piece some things together. But [we’ll] keep coming to the ballpark every day trying to learn, trying to get better.

“This is our team, so we’re just going to have to go through the growing pains together. We’re going to have to go through the successes of winning and the failures, too.”

Mike Matheny will continue to chase every win while rotating young players in the lineup, writes Lynn Worthy.

“We’re trying not to put too many guys on the bench too many days in a row, and we’re keeping in certain guys who want and want them to play whether it’s a lefty matchup or not,” Matheny said.

“Knowing that as an everyday guy, potentially, in the future you’re going to have to face left on left.” “Then, when you get a spot later in the game, and you know that they’re hemmed in to where they have to leave that lefty on the mound and you’ve got an opportunity to take a shot with the right-handed hitter and you like the matchup better, we’ll take our shot.”

The Royals are still in the middle of a stretch of 17 games in 16 consecutive days, a span during which Matheny and his staff have vowed to both keep their position players fresh and also give them opportunities, when possible.

Kris Bubic had been pitching better lately, but Saturday was a setback.

“Fastball command. He just couldn’t find it early on, especially driving it in on the right-handers,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Bubic’s outing. “That’s usually been the key to his success, being able to control counts, getting ahead.

“Then he just was kind of on heels at that point. The breaking ball was pretty good, but he had to go to the changeup a little too often because he hadn’t really sped them up or made them really conscious of the fastball.”

Zack Greinke had to leave his start on Sunday early as a precaution.

“He had something cramp up in his forearm, so we went out in the middle of the inning just to make sure,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It was fine. He didn’t feel anything after that. But then he got back on the bench and started tightening up. We had to get him out.”

MJ Melendez had some defensive gems in the outfield on Friday.

“That was a gutsy play. He’s fearless,” Matheny said. “It’s just fun to watch guys use the skills they’ve been given without any reservation.”

Collin Snider came up and Max Castillo was sent down as part of a revolving door in the pitching staff.

“When you only have one pitcher that you can bring up in September and a number of young pitchers that we have faith in and want to see more of, it’s going to be (interesting),” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “What we have right now — if you look at it on paper — it’s a matrix of guys going up, guys going down.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Reporter wonders if it is time for Carlos Hernandez to become a reliever full-time.

Mike Gillespie at Kings of Kauffman writes why Drew Waters should wait until 2023 to com up.

Former Royals pitcher Danny Duffy made his first rehab start in Arizona for the Dodgers.

Tigers pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez re-joins the team after missing three months for a personal matter.

Nate Fisher was working in a bank in Omaha last year, and is now a Mets reliever.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was visibly frustrated as the Yankees continued their slide.

The Twins induct Cesar Tovar and Dan Gladden into their Hall of Fame.

Dodgers pitcher Dustin May looks good in his return from Tommy John surgery.

The automated ball-strike system gets a test run in a Triple-A game.

Fired Angels manager Joe Maddon has some opinions on how teams are run these days.

Six sleeper players to watch in the NFL this year.

Leon Edwards pulls off a stunning comeback with head-kick knockout over Kamaru Usman in UFC 278 main event.