Royals keep raking, mash Mariners 8-4

No drama necessary in this one.

In a week punctuated by three dramatic come-from-behind wins and a dramatic come-from-behind loss, the Royals played a pretty drama-free one today. Technically, the Royals were behind in this one twice, but neither of those leads lasted an entire inning, so it’s hard to say it ever felt like this one was getting away from the Royals.

Alec Marsh mostly bounced back from a series of bad starts. He gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game but then recorded the next 12 outs with no difficulty, striking out eight of those. In the fifth inning, he got two groundouts around a Mitch Garver foul pole-hitting home run and it was fair to wonder if it was just gonna be one of those days where he dominated outside the random solo home run. That seemed like it would be plenty with how the offense was hitting Luis Castillo, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Marsh suddenly lost his ability to fool the Mariners hitters he’d dominated all day. They collected three straight singles to tie the game before a terrific defensive play from Nick Loftin allowed them to escape the inning.

Marsh was then asked to go back out for the sixth. I know we criticized manager Matt Quatraro a lot earlier this year for trying to get too much out of his starting pitchers, but the recent results I think have justified that approach. Sure, the bullpen was terrific in each of their last two wins, but you don’t want to overuse or overexpose them. Sadly, it didn’t work out today. Marsh gave up a pair of singles to lead off the inning and Q went to Sam Long out of the bullpen.

And this is where it’s nice to have a reliever who can get some strikeouts. Sam Long came in and gave up a sacrifice fly but struck out two around a walk to prevent the Mariners from catching up. Will Smith pitched a perfect seventh with a strikeout, John Schreiber pitched a scoreless eighth with a walk, and James McArthur locked it down with three groundouts in the ninth.

The lack of strikeouts from Schreiber and McArthur is still a bit concerning, but they weren’t giving up hard hit balls at all, so they were still in control of things. Smith, on the other hand, seems to have recovered into a high-leverage reliever in his own right. Since giving up four runs against the Orioles on April 21 Will Smith has pitched to a 1.42 ERA and a 2.74 FIP. For a while, the strikeouts weren’t there, but he now has strikeouts in six of his last seven appearances for a total of seven strikeouts to two walks. He’s allowed three hits in his last five appearances.

This is why teams, including but not limited to the Royals, are reluctant to move on from guys even when it seems obvious to all of us that they are done. If the Royals had cut Smith in late April they wouldn’t have him now while Angel Zerpa and other relievers struggle. But they kept him and he’s picking up the slack and helping the team win.

OK, now let’s talk about the hitting today.

As previously noted, the Mariners led twice but never finished an inning in the lead and did hit a leadoff home run. As you might have deduced, the Royals scored in the bottom of the first. Maikel Garcia led off with a single, stole second to give him 15 without having been caught once, and scored on a Salvador Perez single.

The Royals took the lead in the bottom of the second when Adam Frazier punctuated a long at-bat with Luis Castillo with his second home run of the year.

When the Mariners scored their two in the second the Royals answered immediately again. This time Frazier was leading off and ripped a double. Nick Loftin quickly brought him home with a single. Kyle Isbel tried to bunt for a single but hit it a bit too hard so it became a sacrifice. Maikel Garcia took a walk and then with two outs, Vinnie Pasquantino blasted a double down the rightfield line to take the lead back for the Royals.

In the sixth, after the lead had been shrunk back down to one, the Royals answered for the third time.

With one out, Nelson Velázquez walked and hilariously stole second. A decent throw probably would have gotten him, as it was the awful throw almost did, but defense is not Cal Raleigh’s calling card, so it worked out. Hunter Renfroe pinch hit for Adam Frazier because of the left-handed pitcher. He grounded out. With two outs, Mariners pitcher Kirby Snead very clearly wanted no part of righty Nick Loftin and walked him on five pitches to get to Isbel.

Needless to say, it didn’t work out.

The Royals added one more run in the bottom of the eighth when Renfroe hit a one-out double, Dairon Blanco pinch ran to steal third, and Isbel added a third RBI with a sacrifice fly following a Nick Loftin walk.

Renfroe’s double meant that every Royal that had a plate appearance today reached base at least once except for MJ Melendez. Melendez was also the only hitter to strike out more than once (twice) lest we think he was fixed after last night’s outburst.

One more thing about Alec Marsh, ultimately he gave up four runs in five innings, which doesn’t feel great, but he set a new season high with eight strikeouts and he didn’t walk anyone. It kind of feels like he’s on the upswing.

As noted by former Royals Review scribe David Lesky over on Twitter, had the Royals scored one more run in this game, they would be averaging five a game this year. This offense is streaky, but it isn’t bad.

The Royals are officially in their third winning streak of the year at three in a row and four of their last five. They have a chance to sweep the Mariners (and therefore win the season series) if they win tomorrow. Cole Ragans will pitch for Kansas City; George Kirby will go for the Mariners. The game starts at 1:10 Royals time.