ANAHEIM -- For a young club struggling to find its offensive identity, the Royals couldn’t have drawn a tougher assignment than Shohei Ohtani on Friday against the Angels.
Kansas City entered the game last in the Majors in batting average (.207), and tied for second-to-last in runs scored (59), and was tasked with facing an elite talent to try to break out of the slump.
Compounding the Royals’ predicament was the announcement that lefty Kris Bubic will undergo Tommy John surgery. Friday was originally scheduled to be Bubic’s turn in the rotation, and the club had to rely on opener Taylor Clarke and long man Ryan Yarbrough to navigate the bulk of the game.
For a club coming off an 0-6 homestand and looking for a spark, those were less than ideal circumstances.
And though the Royals ultimately fell to Ohtani and the Angels, 2-0, the fifth time they’ve been shut out this season (in 20 games), there were some positives.
Before the game, manager Matt Quatraro said he was hoping to get five or six innings out of the Clarke-Yarbrough combination, and that’s exactly what the pair delivered. Clarke’s two hitless frames included a strikeout of Ohtani, and Yarbrough’s only blemish came after hitting Zach Neto with a curveball, and allowing Chad Wallach to smack a two-run homer a batter later in the third.
The duo provided six innings of three-hit, two-run ball, walking zero and keeping the offense in the game against Ohtani.
“We'll take that any night of the week,” said Quatraro. “Two runs in six innings, regardless of who's pitching, you'll take your chances that way.”
While the bats couldn’t break through against Ohtani and his arsenal of pitches, there were reasons to feel encouraged. MJ Melendez, who came into the game with a .154 average, worked an eight-pitch walk in the fourth.
“MJ is a young hitter in the big leagues, and he shows a ton of ability,” said Quatraro. “He's got power to all fields, he can put up a quality at-bat like you just saw there. The more at-bats he gets, the more consistently we're gonna see those things.”
Vinnie Pasquantino followed Melendez’s walk with a single, extending his on-base streak to 15 games. The rally was quashed by Salvador Perez’s 6-4-3 double play.
The Royals had their hands full with Ohtani’s “sweeper,” a pitch that is quickly becoming the talk of the Majors. The Royals knew to expect many -- Ohtani threw 43, generating 22 swings and eight whiffs -- but all the pregame homework didn’t make dealing with it any easier.
“It's a great pitch,” said Quatraro. “[Ohtani] seems like somebody that can do whatever he sets out to do. I've seen him pitch in the past without that, so that's just another weapon. We were certainly ready for it. We knew he was throwing it a lot. But until you see it live and you get a chance to adjust to it, it's a new pitch.”
The Angels’ two-way superstar ended his seven-inning, zero-run outing with six consecutive strikeouts, seemingly getting better as the game went along.
“We're gonna keep seeing good arms like that,” said Quatraro. “We're gonna have to figure out a way to score. There's no formula to it. You just keep putting good at-bats together, and somebody's gonna break through.”
Bobby Witt Jr. had an especially tough night against Ohtani, striking out three times before cracking a single with a 113.8 mph exit velocity in the ninth against José Quijada.
Witt spoke postgame of feeling “a little antsy up there because you're facing him and you want to get good hits,” but maintained an attitude of turning the page.
“I think there's always pressure that comes whenever you're losing," Witt said. "... Winning will help that. … We've just got to start being ourselves out there and competing. Go out there, have fun. … Keep pushing the rock forward, keep moving on.”
Yarbrough echoed that sentiment: “It is early, but at the same time you've got to have a little bit of sense of urgency. But we're working our [butts] off. We're not taking anything for granted. It's just a really tough stretch for us right now. We're gonna keep working and doing our thing.”
“We've got to be better,” added Pasquantino. “We know that. But the beautiful thing about this game is we'll be right back out there tomorrow and it'll be 0-0 in the first inning. We're going to do everything we can to start having better at-bats and really focus. We're disappointed in this game. We'll throw it away and we'll get back out there tomorrow.”