12 thoughts about the Royals’ 7-2 win over the Dodgers

Jeremy Guthrie is still pitching... prescient calls that lead to Royals wins.

12. The Dodgers use a live organist in their stadium. Watching the games the last two nights shows what a huge difference that has for the vibe of the game. Really makes it feel more like authentic baseball. I have said it before, but I’ll say it again: if the Royals would promise a live organist at a new stadium, I’d be far more likely to support it.

11. Shortly before the game started, the Royals got excellent news. Tests on Salvador Perez’s injury revealed it to be far more minor than some had feared and he could be back in the lineup as early as tomorrow afternoon, but seems likely to at least return by Tuesday’s game in Oakland.

10. There has been quite a bit of complaining about the umpiring this year, including by yours truly. With that said, after a gift call that helped the Royals beat the Yankees on Thursday, tonight’s home plate umpire, John Bacon, was giving Royals pitchers the outside edge and a little bit more all night long. The Dodgers pitchers did not always get the same benefit.

9. The Royals caught a huge break in this one as Yoshinobu Yamamoto had to come out after only two innings due to a triceps injury. They went down one-two-three to the first reliever out of the bullpen, Michael Grove, and the Dodgers have one of, if not the best bullpens in all of baseball. But as Hall of Fame announcer Denny Matthews always says, “The more times you go to the bullpen, the more likely you’re going to get someone who doesn’t have it that night.” Let’s put a pin in that, though.

8. The Dodgers look a lot like the Royals to me in this series. Their lineup is carried by their stars - they have more of them, but not a lineup full of them - and when those stars go quiet, as they did tonight, they can look remarkably easy to beat. They are carried by their bullpen whereas the Royals are carried by their rotation, but even the Dodgers bullpen can slump. No, leave that pin there, I promise we’ll get it soon.

7. With tonight’s win the Royals still haven’t been swept this year. They are also now 5-6 in their Oops All First Place Teams stretch of baseball. If they win tomorrow they will finish that stretch 6-6 before heading to Oakland to begin a stretch against much more reasonably talented teams. They will end the series in Los Angeles on no worse a pace than 92 wins. They will be no fewer than one game ahead of the pace to follow Suff76’s Narrow Path to 90 Wins.

8. Sam Long pitched 1.1 scoreless innings tonight. He still hasn’t given up a run since joining the Royals and has struck out 9 in 9.2 innings pitched. He’s also walked 5, but considering no one else in the bullpen can be reasonably relied upon for a strikeout, he’s doing just fine.

5. Speaking of relievers who haven’t given up any runs, go ahead and grab up that pin. Coming into tonight, Blake Treinen hadn’t allowed a run for the Dodgers in 14 games pitched. He had walked a measly 1.38 batters per nine innings. After tonight, he has walked 3.29 batters per nine innings and he carries a fine, but no longer stunning, 2.63 ERA. Anthony Banda also entered tonight with a 0.00 ERA. He walked out with a 1.32 ERA.

The Dodgers ended up having to use 5 different relievers and all but Treinen pitched more than one inning. Treinen threw 39 pitches in his 0.2 innings, though. Beyond the Royals winning tonight, that could have an impact on their ability to hold the game down tomorrow if Tyler Glasnow, who is not known for going deep into games, doesn’t go deep into the game.

4. Freddy Fermin got the start tonight because of Salvy’s injury, but he’s been playing a lot more lately anyway. Fermin has a .756 OPS and he’d have a 10-game hitting streak if he hadn’t been called into emergency action last night. Sure, he’s only got a single hit in each of those 10 games, but the nine-game hitting streak was sufficient to a 127 wRC+. He’s also tremendous defensively. The Royals prefer defense in their backup catchers, but he has a bat that isn’t an automatic out, too, and he’s been a huge boon for this team since he joined them full-time last year.

3. Bobby Witt Jr. had a pair of hits tonight, including an RBI single off a broken bat in the seventh inning which means he still leads the American League in batting average. Jurickson Profar and Luis Arraez both went hitless tonight, but Marcell Ozuna went 3-for-5 so he now leads all of baseball with a .327 batting average. The Royals absolutely got in on the BWJ extension just in the nick of time. It’s going to be glorious to watch him play in Kansas City for the next decade-plus.

2. Seth Lugo pitched yet another quality start. His signing was somewhat unheralded. It certainly didn’t get the press of Yamamoto’s, but he now has 10 wins for the Royals which is tied with Ranger Suárez for the most in all of baseball. He’s tied for second in quality starts with several other pitchers with much better pedigrees, but he has 11 quality starts out of 15. That’s just absolutely wild. Lugo may not have as much stuff as Cole Ragans but he has brought a stability to this Royals rotation that cannot be overstated. Something I predicted would be the case when I suggested the Royals offseason free agent signings had been about raising the floor as much as the ceiling of this team. Even I didn’t imagine he’d be this good, though.

We also saw why teams have been making an effort to swing more at Lugo. He had guys completely lost at the plate all night including Cavan Biggio who struck out looking three times on backdoor breaking pitches with runners on.

1. MJ Melendez is everyone’s favorite punching bag.

He also had possibly the best at-bat you will see all year.

Blake Treinen had just walked the bases loaded and then Adam Frazier had struck out. It was the top of the sixth, the Royals were down 2-1, and if they were going to get back in this game it would probably have to be now, and it would have to involve Melendez. Royals TV broadcaster Jeremy Guthrie made his call.

“This feels like the right setup. A guy that hasn’t had the year that he was hoping for at the plate and a guy that hasn’t given up a run. This feels destined for something good for the Royals.”

To say MJ Melendez hasn’t had the year he wanted to have is a vast understatement. Some wondered if he might have been warming up in recent weeks after he tweaked his swing in Minnesota. However, he entered tonight’s game slashing .111/.200/.361/.561 with only four hits, though three were home runs. That was good for a 54 wRC+ compared to his season-long 53 wRC+.

Melendez wasn’t going to have it easy, either. Whatever issues had plagued Treinen’s control that led him to walk the bases loaded appeared to have evaporated when his manager visited him on the mound. He had struck out Adam Frazier on three pitches. It was not going to be an easy four-pitch walk.

Melendez has particularly struggled with high fastballs all year long. So, naturally, Treinen started him with a high cutter. But it was a bit too high and MJ took it for ball one. Six of Treinen’s next seven pitches were cutters in the same area. MJ swung and missed at one, but fouled the rest off. The odd pitch in the batch was the fourth pitch, a 1-2 slider in the dirt that he hoped to get Melendez to chase on an eye-level change. MJ did not offer.

The ninth pitch was another cutter, but it was in, not high, and Melendez fouled it off. Treinen had finally missed, but not in a way that was hittable. The tenth pitch was another slider, but it caught too much of the plate low-and-in, and Melendez managed to foul it off, too. The eleventh pitch of the at-bat was yet another high cutter, but this one missed too far inside and Melendez laid off to bring the count full. Three misses, but none of them hittable. Still, MJ stood ready.

Having thrown 38 pitches in the inning and 11 to Melendez alone, knowing that if he missed the strike zone again he risked walking in the tying run, Treinen tried to go back one more time to that high cutter. This time it wasn’t quite high enough.

I wish I could find a replay that contains the entire at-bat. It was a clinic from MJ Melendez.

The Royals also scored a run in the second inning on a Vinnie Pasquantino double, Freddy Fermin double, and Nick Loftin ground out. They scored two more in the seventh on a Garrett Hampson lead-off triple, a walk to Maikel Garcia, the single from Bobby, a double steal, and a sacrifice fly from Nelson Velázquez.

The Royals will attempt to win the series tomorrow. Brady Singer will pitch for KC. Tyler Glasnow will go for the Dodgers. The game will start at 3:10 Royals time.