Not great
Kansas City Royals pitchers—led by 45-year-old Rich Hil, but aided by multiple bullpen armsl—walked 14 Atlanta Braves batters. For most of the game, the Royals were able to avoid the proverbial shit hitting the fan, but the walks finally came around to bite the team in the eighth inning. The game was not nearly as close as the final 10-7 score indicated.
The evening began well enough, as Hill struck out the first two Braves he saw and efficiently getting through the first three batters. Kansas City immediately struck in the bottom of the first inning, with Jonathan India leading off with an opposite-field single and Maikel Garcia driving him in with an opposite-field double; Garcia would score on another opposite-field single by Salvador Perez. This would give the Royals a 2-0 lead.
That lead would not last, as the Braves unleashed a variety of hits on the back of the 14 walks. This is one of those situations in which I could recount what happened, but considering the Royals were so uncompetitive outside of the first few innings that it’s not really worth reading a whole lot about. 14 walks!!!
In the sixth inning, the Royals had their one and only chance at a proper comeback. Adam Frazier hit an infield single, and new Royal Randal Grichuk hit a squib grounder to the left side of the infield that shortstop Nick Allen couldn’t field cleanly. This was particularly ironic because Rex Hudler had been singing Allen’s praises. These two hits knocked sentient pair of quadriceps Spencer Strider out of the game.
But then MJ Melendez hit a harmless popup and Kyle Isbel struck out on a few quick pitches, which, you know, that’s sort of what you get when you have those two hitting back-to-back.
The Royals got another run back in the seventh inning when their stars did star things. Bobby Witt Jr. led off with a double down the left field line, and Vinnie Pasquantino doubled him home with a near home run that bounced off the outfield fence. Unfortunately, Garcia didn’t get a single, and then Fermin and Adam Frazier—again, not particularly surprisingly—didn’t come through. But a four-run Braves eighth inning put the game to a 9-3 score and out of reach.
Kansas City batters fought back in the ninth inning, with a Witt double, consecutive walks by Vinnie and Garcia, and a Fermin single bringing home a pair. Frazier drove in one more with a sac fly, but Grichuk and Melendez hit harmless fly balls to end the game.
Maybe the biggest event, though, was Strider’s pitch in the bottom of the third that hit Salvy. Perez would leave the game entirely in the fifth inning, replaced by Fermin.
The Royals are now three games below .500 again. They are 4.5 games out from the last Wild Card spot.