Royals' young bats feel growing pains vs. Reds

KANSAS CITY -- Inning after inning on Monday night, the Royals had their chances against the Reds.

Inning after inning, they failed to come through, leading to a 5-4 loss in 10 innings at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals left 10 on base and went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position to lead to their seventh straight loss, which put them 30 games under .500 (18-48).

Frustration is setting in for the youngest offense in baseball.

“It’s not even for yourself, you just want to do something good for the team,” said outfielder MJ Melendez, who made two assists in right field in the series opener. “We want to win. Especially in situations like that, close game, tie game, obviously weren’t able to get those big hits.”

Skids like this typically lead to calls for change, something to spark a lineup or pitching staff to win more games. But the Royals knew patience would be key in a rebuilding year they’re calling an evaluation year, especially with inexperienced hitters playing every night and retooling in the pitching department.

Kansas City's average age of its position players is 26.7 years, a number skewed older by 33-year-old Salvador Perez and 32-year-old bench player Matt Duffy. Except for Perez, every player in Monday’s starting lineup has fewer than 1,000 at-bats in the Major Leagues.

Bobby Witt Jr. leads that group with 857 at-bats across two seasons.

“It’s frustrating,” general manager J.J. Picollo said before Monday’s game. “We want to see things happen faster. But when you go through a road trip like we just went through, it’s tough to see the silver lining. … Talking to [hitting coach Alec Zumwalt], talking to [pitching coach] Brian Sweeney, stick with a plan and stick with what each player needs to work on.

“And then we have to measure progress throughout the entire year. We’re getting to the halfway point, so we still have a lot of games to play.”

Patience can be hard to come by, especially in a clubhouse full of players who want to win. When games like Monday happen -- a close game with ample opportunities to break open the game -- it gets a little more bleak.

“It’s hard,” said Perez, whose ninth-inning homer sent the game to extra innings. “They’re trying to do their job. They’re trying to help the team win. I think they’re doing pretty good. We have a tough situation right now. … We’re going to be out of [this] at some point. It’s close. We’re going to have that click and start to win some games.”

The Royals held an early lead because of Michael Massey’s two-run double in the first and Nick Pratto’s sacrifice fly in the second. But the Reds tied it against Zack Greinke when he allowed back-to-back doubles in the sixth before manager Matt Quatraro turned to Jose Cuas.

It was Kansas City's 23rd blown-lead loss. In the bottom of the 10th, two of the fastest runners in baseball in Witt and Nate Eaton executed a double steal to put runners on second and third with no outs.

Massey flied out to center after failing to execute a bunt against Reds reliever Ricky Karcher, who was making his Major League debut. Quatraro took the blame for asking Massey to bunt against an erratic reliever, saying he “put Massey in a bad spot.” Edward Olivares popped up weakly to third base after going up 3-1 and having an automatic strike called on him, and Maikel Garcia ended the game with a flyout to left.

“When you’re not winning games, all that stuff is going to add up,” Massey said. “So trying to maybe focus a little more on those situations and try to get better pitches to hit. We’ve taken some good swings. You just have to stick with it.”

Sticking with it is what the Royals are doing and will continue to do in 2023. When asked whether his confidence was unwavering in the young players he was evaluating, Picollo was adamant.

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” Picollo said. “We have a really good core here. Just talking to other executives throughout the league who have gone through similar experiences, and you watch what they’ve done and how they handle it, it comes down to, ‘Keep running them out there.’ Putting them in positions to succeed and the coaches staying as positive as they can.”