The following article appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal on April 20 – you can read it by clicking here.
After breaking out of a dreaded 10-game skid with a sweep of Cleveland last weekend, manager Ned Yost declared that the Royals “are a better team than the 10-game-losing streak showed.”
Some statistics back up that statement. On April 11, following the last of the 10 losses, the Royals’ 4.5 runs per game was just below the American League average. They were also in the middle of the pack in slugging and in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS). And on that date, their six quality starts from pitchers was in the upper half of the league.
So, if the offense and starting pitching was average to above, what was the problem during that stretch? One word: bullpen.
The Royals had blown four of six save opportunities, and seemed to have no answer for how to close out a game they should win.
While a myriad of problems led to the 58-104 disaster of 2018, the bullpen was the leading culprit. Losing with youngsters in the everyday lineup and in the starting rotation was bad enough. But when the team had a chance to win, blown opportunities by the bullpen were particularly galling.
The Royals thought they had purged the worst of last year’s relievers. They cut ties with Blaine Boyer, Justin Grimm, Brandon Maurer and Burch Smith – guys who combined to allow 181 hits and 141 runs over 143.2 innings.
They added two veterans in Brad Boxberger – a former closer in Arizona – and Jake Diekman, a tandem that couldn’t possibly be as bad as the quartet they’d just banished. Could they?
Turns out, in the early going, they could.
Boxberger, in particular, has been dreadful. He’s surrendered more than a run per inning, and his pitching has led directly to a loss three times already in this short season. After Boxberger blew a lead on Monday at Chicago, Yost essentially stopped using him, turning to other options.
With a few more wins under their belts, things in the bullpen don’t seem quite as dire as they did a week ago. Despite the rough start, Diekman and Boxberger will probably remain a factor. They continue to take the same attitude as they took to begin the season.
“The most important thing to being successful is seeing every day as a new day,” said Boxberger, who, with 77 career saves, has seen his share of success. “No matter what happened the day before, you might be called upon again the next day, so you have to be able to put that out of your mind and believe you can succeed the next day.”
Diekman said that, on top of trying to pitch effectively, he and Boxberger will try to provide a veteran presence as Yost relies more and more on youngsters like Richard Lovelady and Scott Barlow.
“We have a lot of pitchers with very, very good arms,” Diekman said. “They might not be the most experienced down there, but they have the ability to have success up here. So if (Brad or I) can give them any knowledge or ease the growing pains, then we’re happy to do it.”
Yost tends to believe in veterans to know how to turn things around. A week ago he seemed to be more frustrated with the poor showing by those young members of the pen.
“We have some very young pitchers who need to understand how good they are when they step on the mound, and get on the attack,” he said after the sweep of Cleveland last Sunday. “They’ve got to trust their stuff and attack.”
The Royals opened the season with high hopes that oft-injured Kyle Zimmer was ready to play a role in the pen. But having so little in-game experience, Zimmer might not have been ready for the jump to the majors. He struggled with his command and was sent to the minors to figure things out.
Another guy who dropped the ball was Tim Hill, a key lefty last year. He was also sent down, as was the more experienced Kevin McCarthy.
Next to disappoint was Lovelady, whose promotion had been much anticipated due to his success in the minors. Other youngsters like Jake Newberry and Glen Sparkman have had spotty results as well.
But the season is still young. With the emergence of converted started Ian Kennedy as a reliable option in late innings, and expected improvement from Wily Peralta, there is still time for the pen to go from a weakness to a strength. Those two veterans, plus Barlow and Lovelady, combined to hold the fort in recent wins.
“We’ve got a really special group of guys,” said Barlow, who saw limited action in 2018 and is starting to see his role expand. “Everybody gets along really well and with everybody helping each other, I think down the road, as the days and weeks go by, we can really feed off each other and do something special.
“It’s a lot of just building off each other. We’re starting to get into a better routine, taking care of our business. We’re definitely asking the older guys for help when we need it. And as each guy pitches well, we’re feeding off of each other.”