BRONX, NY — The Royals grabbed the early lead at Yankee Stadium Saturday night and had those good swings against Gerrit Cole that resulted in four runs in five innings. Back-and- forth they went and Game 1 of their American League Division Series could have gone either way.
The Royals may have lost 6-5 to the Yankees but have been resilient with that tendency of coming back. They expect to get a win and even the best-of-five series Monday night in the Bronx, though there is no sense of urgency.
They know the task, split on the road and back to Kansas City for a Game 3. Urgent to win tends to be more significant in October and in the best-of-five format. There tends to be less urgency when the best four-of-seven format takes place in the ALCS and World Series.
Regardless, this is the postseason and the Royals have deserved to be here. They fell short and eight walks issued from starter Michael Wacha and five relievers combined was not Royal-like.
Though five back-and-forth lead changes in the game showed both teams were in that urgent mode of winning Game 1. The lead changes set a new postseason game record. However a complexion of what this series could become, lead changes and a decisive game 5 that could be decided with the bullpens.
And the Royals will look for more production from. Michael Massey, Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvador Pérez. Their top four in the lineup went 3-19 combined and could not attack the zone as they did so often during their success. Witt Jr., a key part of this who led the majors with 211 hits and a .322 batting average.
Manager Matt Quatraro is not concerned about the walks or his team feeling that sense of urgency.
“Oh, I’m not worried about that at all,” he said. We’re here to play. We’re confident. We know it’s going to be a tough game (Monday) clearly, but I’m not worried about their morale or anything like that.”
But the history of best-of-five postseason series has a team winning Game 1 going on to advance 72 percent of the time. The Royals won’t address that stat, and others in their respective division series also ignore it. This is October baseball and the first game is history.
“Postseason, the games are always going to be tight,” said Massey who thought a tag nailed Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a stolen base attempt in the seventh. But a review overturned the call and Chisholm would score on an Alex Verdugo RBI single, a precious run in a back-and-forth affair.
“We had plenty of plays to make that we didn’t,” he said. “I had an opportunity to drive in a run and I didn’t. Plenty of things we could have done. You never lose the game based on one play. It’s always a collection of plays but certainly frustrating.”
A play then appeared to go the Royals way but replays showed it was conclusive to overturn the call. But this was a Game 1 of missed opportunities and things did not go their way, something that will show more of their resilience.
“I got a look at it afterwards and felt we had a pretty good argument to get that overturned,” said Quatraro.
Back to their resiliency and the Royals (86-76) finish rebounded after a franchise record 106 losses in 2023. Yes, some of the names have changed and there was that span of losing the AL Central lead to the Guardians, but they managed to be one of three teams from the division to qualify for the postseason.
“We walked too many people today, but I think our pitchers will get back on track,” the veteran Pérez said. “Everybody can have a bad day. Today is over. Try to learn from the mistakes we made today and come back Monday to try to get one out of two here.”
And the mission now for these Royals is get that one win, if not they have to face the reality of elimination in front of their loyal fan base. Then again they have faced this adversity of losing and bouncing right back. Back-and-forth, though that is not what they anticipate with ace Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.13 ERA) on the mound.
Game 3 starter in Kansas City is Seth Lugo, contender for the AL Cy Young Award, and a former LatinoMVP award winner so they like their chances.
“I don’t think we’ll have a problem coming back Monday and bouncing back,” Massey said.
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and contributor of LatinoSports.com – X (Twitter): @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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Julio
October 6, 2024 at 11:47 am
Don’t underestimate the Royals & ur article portrays that clearly.