Mariners can’t out-pesky the Royals, lose 3-2

The spirit (Logan Evans) is strong, but the flesh (the offense) is weak

The Royals might be lingering towards the bottom of their division, but what they displayed tonight in a 3-1 win over the Mariners showed why I picked them as World Series winners in our pre-season picks. The Royals scrap and scrape and don’t give at-bats away; they’re the hardest team to strike out in the American League. As someone scarred by the 2024 Mariners, who treated the strike zone like Jackson Pollock throwing paint on a canvas, you can understand why the high-contact Royals captured my preseason heart.

On paper, Logan Evans seemed like a poor matchup for these Royals, given his lack of swing-and-miss stuff. But making his first start since being sent back to Triple-A in early June, Evans came out of the gates hard tonight, striking out Jonathan India on three pitches (sinker-sweeper-cutter) and then basically running it back against Bobby Witt Jr. (cutter-sweeper) for a second strikeout before getting a one-pitch groundout to end the inning.

Evans cut through Kansas City’s lineup the first time through with ease before running into a bit of a buzzsaw the second time through, where those pesky baseball magnets the Royals have hidden in their bats finally zapped to life. The Royals foul off a ton of pitches while trying to pull the ball and make pitchers work, but they also don’t chase and they make good adjustments. After Evans cruised through the lineup the first time through, the Royals were able to load the bases against him with two outs in the fourth (on just one hit), forcing Evans to do some fancy pitching to wiggle out of trouble, getting the two toughest hitters in this pocket by striking out Witt and getting Perez to pop out softly enough to keep the runner at third base. It took more fancy pitching for Evans to clear the fifth, working around runners on the corners with two outs and the dangerous Witt up for what felt like the fiftieth time in the game, but despite throwing Witt not a single pitch in the zone, he was able to coax a weak flyout to hang another zero.

“I think I just executed glove-side down and away all day to him pretty well,” said Evans, who struck out Witt twice on the day in addition to the flyout. “I threw cutters down there, sweepers down there, I even got a fastball down there. I think mixing and matching locations and showing him different stuff was all a part of that and getting him to pop out was pretty key.”

Evans was one out away from finishing a sixth inning of work before he got stung by Salvador Perez, who got his barrel on a sweeper off the plate and knocked it for a double. Casey Legumina came in and struggled to find the zone, walking his first hitter, but was able to get John Rave first-pitch swinging to end the threat.

Meanwhile, the Mariners went the opposite direction against Royals starter Seth Lugo, putting a bunch of pitches on him early, but squandering baserunners—as is their wont. It felt like all night long Luke Raley was left standing at second. They were able to scrape one run off Lugo in the fifth, when Jorge Polanco found his power stroke for his first home run since June 13th, which was in turn his first home run since May 12th. At this rate he’ll finish the season with 14 home runs, tying his 2023 record, which is fine except when you realize nine of those homers came before May.

It’s hard to blame the bullpen for giving up the game in the seventh, as no group has been worked more to the bone over this unforgiving 17-game stretch, but give up the game they did. Casey Legumina, back for another inning of work got an out but then walked his next two hitters, both on some fairly questionable calls (and one because Jonathan India reacts like he just got burned by any pitch that even ventures a tiny bit inside, my least favorite baseball player trick). Carlos Vargas came on to try to put out the fire with a tough customer in Bobby Witt Jr., who of course immediately knocked in a game-tying single. Witt stole second, and then Pasquantino knocked home two go-ahead runs with a hard-hit single past a diving Luke Raley, one particularly galling as the throw from Dominic Canzone came in in plenty of time but Cal Raleigh missed the tag on Witt, who made an excellent slide.

That would prove to be the difference in this game, as a late-game Dominic Canzone home run off Carlos Estévez got the Mariners closer, but not close enough.

It is extra galling to lose to Witt Jr. after all Evans had done to keep him quiet, especially on a night when the Mariners’ own homegrown talent was quiet. Cal Raleigh continued a recent scuffle at the plate that started with an 0-for-4, four-strikeout night two games ago, going 0-for-5, and Julio Rodríguez, despite walking and stealing his 100th career base, was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Both contributed to an eye-bleachingly-bad 0-for-11 with RISP that sunk the Mariners tonight.

But there’s no need to be any less fair to Logan Evans, a homegrown talent who came through tonight in his first start back after being demoted to Triple-A the day after making his best career start, an eight-inning performance against the Nationals.

“I still believe that I belong,” said Evans postgame. “I have since my first pitch here.”

Unfortunately, for a Mariners pitcher to turn in a strong performance while the offense fails to come through, he truly does belong.