Royals Rumblings - News for July 6, 2023

In a season of offensive struggles, Zack Greinke has gotten little run support:

The Royals haven’t offered him much run support, and that didn’t change Tuesday. Kansas City has scored just 29 runs in Greinke’s 92 2/3 innings this season. Bobby Witt Jr.’s two-run homer in the fourth was the Royals’ only offense of the game until they scratched one across in the ninth inning. They struck out nine times against Twins starter Kenta Maeda and didn’t manage a hit until the fifth on Witt’s 13th homer of the season.

“He’s always been a guy who’s just not going to give in,” Quatraro said of Maeda. “It’s going to be spin, spin, spin, occasional fastball. When he’s locating that slider down, bottom of the zone, strike-to-ball pitches, he can be really tough. You got to have discipline down.”

That’s hardly unique to Greinke, however:

After a positive series against the Dodgers won on good baserunning and defense, the Royals lost that approach when they got on the road. Against the Twins, the Royals struck out 34 times in three games. That is 34 times they didn’t force Minnesota to make a defensive play, increase their chances to manufacture a run or make something happen on the basepaths.

Kansas City was outscored 22-7 in the first series of this seven-game road trip that concludes with four games against a top-10 pitching staff in Cleveland.

Part of that was because of Twins starter Pablo López, who pitched a complete-game shutout with a career-high 12 strikeouts on Wednesday.

Even if the Royals ran into a couple of tough-luck outs on hard-hit balls, they were kept off balance by López’s offspeed pitches or locked up by his fastball. The Royals whiffed 17 times on 51 swings against López (33%), including five times on his changeup and four times on his curveball. His fastball garnered seven whiffs and 12 called strikes for a 46% called strike/whiff percentage.

Jared Perkins at Just Baseball has a draft guide for the Royals.

Shohei Ohtani’s June was perhaps the best month in MLB history. ($)

Also on ESPN+, Kiley McDaniel has his last round of prospect rankings ahead of this Sunday’s draft. ($)

The Home Run Derby bracket is set.

Yankees reliever Jimmy Cordero will be suspended for the remainder of the season for domestic violence.

Boston reliever and old friend Wyatt Mills will undergo Tommy John surgery.

Player payroll doesn’t seem to have much connection with team success this season.

A restaurant in Maine has tried getting lobsters high before boiling them.

On a related note, as psychedelics see more widespread use in the US, a movement of volunteers is stepping up to help guide people safely through their trips.

Your song of the day is Sweet Escape by Alesso and Sirena.