Royals overwhelmed by infield hits again, Phillies win game and series 11-3

Backup catcher and number-nine hitter Garrett Stubbs comes through with a four-for-four day to lead the Phillies over Kansas City again.

More bad news on a Sunday afternoon. After being blown out last night, today’s game followed much the same script.

The Royals’ starter, this time Seth Lugo, gritted his teeth through five innings and had the Royals only down by one entering the sixth inning. Manager Matt Quatraro, wary of using his bullpen, asked the starter to pitch the sixth despite an escalating pitch count, needing to face the order a third time through, and generally not being particularly dominant prior to that inning.

As before, Lugo couldn’t get the job done and the Phillies scored three in the inning before blowing it open in the eighth inning with Will Smith on the mound. Lugo gave up a career-high 11 hits, five of them were infield hits. Lugo didn’t pitch poorly, but for the first six innings, this was playoff baseball. Both teams were scratching and clawing for every little advantage. Of course, by the ninth, Garrett Hampson was pitching for Kansas City. And he even managed a scoreless inning!

For all the weeping and gnashing of teeth about Will Smith and Chris Stratton, they almost certainly won’t pitch in the postseason should Kansas City make it.

The Royals’ offense only allowed a pair of 1-2-3 innings for Phillies pitchers, when old friend Matt Strahm pitched the seventh and the ninth against Carlos Estévez. Ordinarily, under those circumstances, you’d expect a big offensive day from the Royals. Unfortunately, they didn’t collect a single hit with runners in scoring position despite being the best team at hitting in such situations all year. All of their runs came on solo shots by Bobby Witt Jr. (a 441-foot line drive homer to center,) Maikel Garcia, and MJ Melendez.

Tyler Gentry, joining the team because Hunter Renfroe has suffered a leg injury, made his major league debut as a pinch hitter for Melendez in the eighth inning. He popped out to right on the first pitch he saw. You’d expect him to start at least one and maybe both of the games tomorrow.

There are still silver linings to this game. For one, the bats didn’t go completely silent, and the smart money would be to bet against the Royals continuing to go oh-fer with runners in scoring position even into tomorrow. Additionally, the Red Sox lost which means they got swept by the Diamondbacks and the Royals’ Magic Number fell to 29 despite the loss. The Twins also fell to a late-game comeback from the Cardinals in their game and so the Royals remain tied with them for the second Wild Card spot and second in the division.

Finally, I took a look yesterday at what I expected the Royals to do to finish the year. I predicted the Royals would go 1-2 against the Phillies, but also finish with 90 wins. So they’re right on pace.

Tomorrow’s game will be a doubleheader with the division-leading Guardians. The Guardians increased their lead over the Royals to three games over the weekend, but following the doubleheader the Royals will play two more against Cleveland and have a chance to close or even eliminate that gap with a good series against the slumping team. Cole Ragans is expected to pitch the first game; Alec Marsh is expected to be the Royals’ 27th man and start the nightcap. The first game should start at 12:10 KC time, the second is scheduled for 5:40.