Garcia, Pratto smash home runs but eighth inning meltdown sinks Royals 8-4

It does not matter if the Kansas City Royals win or lose at this point in the season. They are not making the playoffs, they are not going to achieve a winning record, they are not going to get to .500, and they are probably not even avoiding 100 losses. So, tonight’s 8-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins is mostly irrelevant. What really matters is how individual Royals performed, the ones who are the core building block for the future team.

And overall, they did quite well!

It started with Maikel Garcia, who has silenced lots of doubters (myself included) and who performed wonderfully. Garcia ambushed the first pitch of the game for a home run. Nice!

Garcia ended the night with two hits and two walks. He has been absolutely on fire lately, and it has been a joy to watch.

Nick Pratto was also excellent. The 24-year-old first baseman tied the game not once, but twice, first with an absolute smash of a line drive that bounced so hard off the right field wall that it limited him to a single.

Then, in the top of the eighth, Pratto hit a towering fly ball that doinked off the foul pole as a solo home run. Sure, he struck out to end the ninth inning, but hey, you can’t get ‘em all.

Austin Cox, the sort of forgotten Royals starting pitching prospect in that 2018 draft, started his second game of the year. He was...fine. Twins hitters did a good job at laying off his curveball. Cox did limit his walks, only walking a pair in his 4.2 innings of work, and notching four strikeouts along the way. He managed to limit damage, with the Twins scoring one run apiece in the first, second, and fifth innings. But, to be fair “fine” pitching has been a huge improvement over what the Royals have been working with, so he deserves a longer look to be sure.

The eighth inning was the stinker. Taylor Clarke took over from Collin Snider, and Clarke promptly gave up four consecutive hits after giving up a giant homer to Edouard Julien and getting one out to fool everybody into a sense of security. Nick Wittgren then gave up the Twins’ fifth consecutive hit, which scored another pair of Twins to bring the total to five.

This was actually a really enjoyable game for seven and a half innings, but the eighth inning poop emoji from Royals pitchers really ruined it. Oh, one fun note: the Twins committed the tootiest TOOTBLAN that ever TOOTBLAN’d. After a Willie Castro single in the fourth, the Twins made a pair of outs. Then, inexplicably, Castro attempted to steal second base even though Cox had the ball in his hand at the mound, and Cox just picked him off at first base? I dunno what Castro was thinking. You just sort of had to see it.

Kansas City almost came back in the ninth inning. Nicky Lopez singled. Garcia walked. Bobby Witt Jr. doubled—Witt also had a nice night with a pair of hits and a pair of steals—but the deficit was too great. Additionally, man, it was a tale of two lineups. The ninth through fourth spots in the lineups combined for eight hits and two walks. The fifth through eighth spots got one hit and one walk. Combined.

In any case, it was a good game. Garcia, Witt, Pratto, and Cox all impressed to varying degrees. That’s what matters. The Royals lost because a 30-year-old reliever wasn’t sharp enough. That’s ok. Onto tomorrow.