MINNEAPOLIS -- A starter walking off the mound in the fourth inning after allowing seven runs is not the ideal way to begin a four-game series, but fortunately for the Royals, reliever Carlos Hernández delivered 2 1/3 scoreless innings to save the bullpen with three more games on tap in Minneapolis this weekend.
Unfortunately for the Royals, the seven-run hole was too big for the team’s struggling offense to dig its way out in the 7-1 series-opening loss to the AL Central-leading Twins on Thursday night at Target Field.
The sports world had its eyes trained on Kansas City on Thursday as the host of this year’s NFL Draft. But up north, the baseball team found itself facing a loss similar to most others in this 6-20 start to the 2023 season: Too little offense and a start gone wrong. The Royals mustered just three hits off Twins pitching, and the only run was Vinnie Pasquantino’s two-strike homer off Tyler Mahle in the fourth, a 419-foot solo blast to the concourse in right field.
The offense was held to one or no runs for the ninth time this season -- the most such games in the Majors. The Twins plan to send out Pablo López (3.00 ERA), Sonny Gray (0.62 ERA) and Joe Ryan (2.81 ERA) to round out this series.
“We’re struggling. We’ve got to find a way to get out of it,” Pasquantino said. “There’s lots that can be said that I’m not going to say to [the media]. We’ve got to find a way. We get to play tomorrow. May’s coming up, so we got that going for us. Just find a way. [The Twins are] leading the division, and we have a chance to take some from them. We need to do whatever we can.
“… There’s a lot of frustration. It’s anger. We know we can do better than this. But we have to do it. Guys are working really hard, but nobody cares about how hard we’re working. … We recognize there are problems. We are working on fixing them. So how can we do that? We’ll be right back out here tomorrow. We’re not hiding from anybody.”
Besides Pasquantino’s homer, the positive of Thursday was the bullpen. Hernández struck out three in an efficient 2 1/3 innings, needing 27 pitches to get seven outs. Josh Staumont and Jose Cuas rounded out the effort.
“The biggest thing is, he’s controlled his tempo a little bit better,” manager Matt Quatraro said of Hernández. “In my mind, he’s not rushing in between pitches as much. It has nothing to do with the pitch clock, but just that he’s controlling his own rhythm and not getting too excited and rushing through his delivery.”
In the past five games, the Royals’ bullpen has allowed four earned runs in 17 1/3 innings (2.08 ERA) with 24 strikeouts and six walks. But one of the themes of the Royals’ season is when one aspect finds its footing, the others fall flat.
“Bullpen did a great job tonight,” Pasquantino said. “They came in the game and shoved. They did everything they could, and I feel like I say this a lot: We gave them nothing from the offensive side. We’ve got to find a way to do better because they’re picking us up on the back end. We’ve got to do a good job of setting the tone early.”
But the bullpen couldn't undo damage already done. Zack Greinke, whose 3 2/3-inning start was his shortest start this year, is now 0-4 to start the season, matching the second-longest skid of his career (also in 2005 and ‘10). But Thursday was his worst start of this season, as he allowed seven runs on eight hits, including back-to-back homers from Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa in the fourth inning.
Buxton’s three-run blast came on a 2-0 curveball that he crushed to center field. Correa followed with a homer off a curveball down in the zone.
Greinke said he felt fine physically and that he was “a little surprised they hit me as good as they did.”
“Should have been a good pitch,” Greinke said. “He took a great swing, obviously. Hit it really hard. Buxton’s was a 2-0 one. Maybe I’m throwing too many curveballs behind in the count, so he could sit on it. It’ll be something to look into. There are not many curveballs guys that can hit opposite field homers, so those were two really good swings.”