Detroit repays bullpen shellacking, win 6-5 in 11 innings

The Royals bullpen blew three saves in one night.

This was planned as a celebratory post-game recap. The Royals used all four of their trade deadline acquisitions in tonight’s game. The first three were excellent. The last one was not, and then the Royals’ old bullpen problems reared their ugly heads once more.

Let’s go ahead and get the bad stuff out of the way first. Skip down to the header if you want to just remember the good things that happened. Hunter Harvey was tasked with closing the game out in the ninth inning. Harvey had appeared in four games for the Royals prior to tonight. His debut against the White Sox didn’t go particularly well, but the Royals won anyway. He had control issues in his next outing against Arizona but worked a scoreless inning. Against the Cubs he was suffering back spasms, walked two, and was removed. But in his last outing against the White Sox he dominated. He struck out a pair, made them look foolish, and even though he gave up a run, it was because of two incredibly poorly hit balls that happened to drop.

Tonight was by far his worst outing.

Harvey could not get his splitter going for anything. He hung one to Bligh Madris and the two-run lead he inherited was immediately cut in half. He gave up a double, a weak grounder, another double with an RBI attached, a deep flyball, and eventually escaped the inning on a groundout to first. Harvey, who was brought in for his ability to get strikeouts, did not earn any but did give up three extra-base hits and allowed the Tigers to tie the game.

In the top of the tenth, Freddy Fermin, who was leading off for the first time in his career, advanced the ghost runner, Kyle Isbel, to third base on a ground out. Bobby Witt Jr. lined to center and only a diving catch by Parker Meadows turned that from an RBI single (or more) into a sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Royals asked Kris Bubic to earn his first career save. He got a groundout but then struck out Matt Vierling to get the Royals within one out of winning the game. Sadly, Justyn-Henry Malloy was able to line a ball into the right corner to tie it once more before Bubic intentionally walked pinch hitter Gio Urshela and induced an inning-ending ground out from Ryan Vilade.

In the top of the eleventh, Dairon Blanco was tasked with running for Vinnie Pasquantino as the ghost runner. Salvador Perez struck out, but Blanco stole third after review on a close play with an excellent slide. Hunter Renfroe, who has been incredibly hot for two months now, immediately drove him in with a line drive single to left.

And so, with the bullpen running out of options, Matt Quatraro turned to James McArthur to close it out. McArthur, seeking redemption, instead gave up a lead-off triple to to Meadows, who was undoubtedly the player of the game. He intentionally walked Javier Báez and then induced a groundball from Jake Rogers to Witt playing up the middle. Witt made an incredibly savvy play by looking Meadows back to third, then throwing behind him to Maikel Garcia to start a double play. Unfortunately, the savviness went to waste as Wenceel Pérez lined a ball just over Renfroe’s head to walk the game off.

OK, let’s talk about the good things that happened tonight

Vinnie Pasquantino got the scoring started in the sixth inning with a no-doubt bomb to right field. This extended his hitting streak to seven games and his RBI streak to five. Paul DeJong showed why the Royals went out to get him by hitting a two-run shot on a hanging splitter from Kenta Maeda mere moments after broadcaster Rex Hudler noted that hanging splitters get hit a long way. Lucas Erceg pitched a gorgeous eighth inning, completely overpowering the Tigers hitters.

But perhaps the highlight of the night was Michael Lorenzen. Lorenzen was making his debut for the Kansas City Royals and he was absolutely electric. He only ever seemed to really be in trouble in the fourth and sixth innings. In the fourth, Bobby had a rare error and Lorenzen walked the bases full before escaping without allowing any runs. In the sixth he allowed an automatic double and RBI single to tie the game, both with two outs, before being pulled for Sam Long. Long, for his part, escaped that jam and then pitched a perfect seventh with a strikeout.

Lorenzen should have been the story of the game. His changeup was absolutely filthy all night long. He threw 20 of them, got eleven swings, and nine whiffs. That’s a 45% whiff rate on his second-most used pitch of the evening. In the end, he pitched 5.2 innings, allowed one run, gave up five hits and two walks, and struck out five. His excellent debut will be completely overshadowed by the ninth- and extra-inning bullpen implosion, but it shouldn’t be.

Still, if you’re wondering who is likely to pitch the ninth in a close Royals lead, I’d put money on Long or Erceg. McArthur has pitched in back-to-back nights. Bubic is still getting used to being a reliever and seems unlikely to pitch in back-to-back games. Hunter Harvey should probably still be pitching in high leverage, but he’s done nothing to earn the right to try to close again immediately after tonight’s debacle. Erceg has also pitched in back-to-back games, but he faced only one hitter Friday night. Long didn’t pitch Friday and looked great tonight. I’ve also argued that he belongs as a high-leverage reliever for the Royals but I don’t want him in a fireman’s role.

The Royals can’t have a perfect road trip. But they can still win this series and they can still have a 6-1 road trip, which would be pretty good. Michael Wacha will start for the Royals tomorrow. Detroit still hasn’t announced a starter. Tomorrow’s game will be at 12:40 KC time.

By the way, Cleveland and Boston both are losing big in the ninth inning as I write this. Minnesota won, so the Royals will drop back into the third Wild Card spot, but they won’t lose ground to anyone else. It’s a tough loss, but things could definitely be worse.