Gamethread LXXVIII - Royals at Rangers

The Royals are beginning to make moves to escape their tailspin. Will it be enough?

The Royals finished up a brutal stretch against first-place teams last weekend and we were all hoping that, facing lesser competition, the team would rebound and start winning some games again. Since then, they’ve lost three out of four contests to two AL West teams that are under .500 and have been playing horribly until the Royals came to town.

There is good news, at least. Hunter Renfroe, who had been hitting well for a month before hitting the IL, returned last night, though he won’t start today. Michael Wacha, who has been pitching reasonably well if not ace-like, returns to the rotation tonight. Steven Cruz was demoted back to Omaha without having appeared for the Royals in a corresponding move.

But beyond those things, manager Matt Quatraro is starting to make changes in order to try and spark a somewhat lifeless offense while they await the return of Michael Massey and whoever general manager JJ Picollo can acquire as the tradeline approaches. Maikel Garcia, who has been leading off all season, was given a day off two nights ago. Tonight he will start, but he will bat seventh.

This is a positive step for the Royals as Garcia is not really much of a leadoff hitter even when things are going well. He hits the ball hard and he runs fast, but he doesn’t really take walks or get on-base. That makes him more the kind of player who can drive runs in and who you’re happy to see on base when the top of the order comes back up but who you don’t necessarily expect or require to be there. Hopefully the demotion will get his bat going again and he can move back up into a fifth or sixth spot in the order, but Garcia’s is far from the only bat that needs to get going for a team that has scored a measly ten runs in five games so far this week.

Adam Frazier will get leadoff duties for Kansas City this afternoon, but he’s just not a reliable hitter period, and so among Picollo’s priorities should be to add an on-base guy to add some consistency to the top of the order.

There were some rumors that Max Scherzer would debut for Texas today, but now the word is that he will start tomorrow. Still, things don’t get much easier for KC as they prepare instead to face Jon Gray who seems to only be getting better with every year he’s in Texas.

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