Gamethread XXXIV – Royals at Orioles

With a win today the Royals could guarantee a winning road trip.

The Royals lost for only the second time in their last eleven following their six-game losing streak. It was a shutout, as if to prove that the team had not yet solved its offensive issues following a blowout victory over the Rays to complete that series sweep Thursday afternoon. Still, that’s a lot of wins, and winning either today or tomorrow would guarantee the Royals their first winning road trip of the season. Winning both would give them their fourth straight series win. It would be an excellent start to the month of May.

To chase the goal of winning tonight, the offense will have their hands full against veteran rookie Tomoyuki Sugano. The 35-year-old spent the first 12 years of his career in the NPB but because of a quirk of MLB is considered a rookie in the US and Canada. Sugano had a rough beginning to his MLB career, but his last three starts have been excellent, allowing only five runs over 19 innings. Even early on, though, he led the Orioles to their only victory over the Royals at Kauffman, holding them to a solo home run from Bobby Witt Jr. in 5.1 innings.

Fortunately, the Royals have the pitching to effectively counter him and give the team a chance. Of course, I could literally be speaking of any of their starters but in this case, Kris Bubic will take the mound. Bubic had easily his worst start the last time out, fighting his command against the Houston Astros on Sunday in their only loss of the homestand. He gave up four runs on five hits and three walks in 5.1 innings, but three of those runs came off of a single bad pitch. You can’t remove that pitch from the game, but if you could, his Sunday would have looked significantly better.

Lineups

Royals captain Salvador Perez will sit out the second game in a row, the first time he’s done that since he got a concussion in September of 2023. That injury appears to have been more serious than anyone believed following Thursday’s contest. In his place, Freddy Fermin plays catcher and Maikel Garcia bats cleanup. Michael Massey bats fifth and Hunter Renfroe bats six to round out the middle third of the Royals’ lineup and highlight just how thin this team’s offense really is. If the Royals are going to win tonight, they’re probably going to need a gem from Bubic.

The Orioles continue to miss Tyler O’Neill, Jordan Westburg, Ramón Urías, and Gary Sánchez from their own lineup. They do have Royals’ castoff and last night’s hero, Ryan O’Hearn, to bat fifth for them. Add in Heston Kjerstad batting seventh, and the Orioles’ own lineup is forced to field four lefties. At least two of them would normally sit against a guy like Bubic. Hopefully, Kris can get his sweeper working early and send the O’s home with a loss.