Lugo had his worst start of the year, but it didn’t matter because the hitters did nothing to help him.
Sometimes the other team is just better that day and you have to tip your cap.
I’ve not been shy about pointing out bad umpiring this year and home plate umpire Adam Hamari was among the worst we’ve seen this season. But his wildly inconsistent zone has little to do with why the Royals lost, today. Lugo was hanging his breaking pitches and leaving everything up and the Red Sox just didn’t miss much. In the end, he struck out six and only allowed a single walk but gave up five runs in five innings and is no longer the MLB leader in ERA as Tarik Skubal and Corbin Burnes are now in front of him. The ERA ballooned from 2.21 all the way up to 2.48.
The first inning was quite a taste of what was to come. The Royals went down in order against Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford who threw 12 pitches, all strikes. Crawford threw seven shutout innings and 76 of his 96 pitches were either swung at or called strikes. This was his second straight seven-inning shutout start after he did the same thing to the Yankees on Sunday. So it’s not like the Royals are the only team he’s picked on or anything.
Meanwhile, in the bottom half of the first, Lugo allowed a leadoff double to Jarren Duran, walked David Hamilton, but then struck out Masataka Yoshida looking, got Rafael Devers to ground out, and retired Rob Refsnyder on a deep flyball to right-center, which is the exact worst area to hit such a ball. No runs allowed but that was either going to be the Red Sox only chance or it was going to be a sign of things to come. As it turns out, it was the latter.
The Royals mustered only four hits all day against Crawford and reliever Zack Kelly, who pitched the final two innings. There just isn’t a real silver lining to the Royals’ plate approach. Kris Bubic pitched two scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts and Nick Anderson completed his own scoreless inning, also adding two strikeouts, so at least the bullpen looked good for a day.
The Royals still have a chance for a winning series and a winning road trip on their final game before the All-Star Break tomorrow afternoon. Brady Singer will face off against Brayan Bello, who has not covered himself in glory after inking a six-year extension in the off-season. The game will start at 12:35 Royals time.
Even if the Royals lose tomorrow, they would finish the road trip 4-4 and finish the first half of the season with 52 wins, the most by any team headed into the All-Star break after losing more than 100 the season before. They will be no worse than two games out of a playoff position with an excellent starting rotation, a young superstar, and several solid players. They also won’t lose many, if any, key contributors ahead of next season even as some payroll will come off the books. Even if things don’t work out this year, as long as owner John Sherman continues investing in the roster, there should be plenty more fun years to look forward to.
