Matheny: Blue Jays ‘Jumped All Over’ Daniel Lynch’s Mistakes
After dropping their series against the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals remained at home and hoped to get off on a better foot against the Toronto Blue Jays. That didn't end up being even remotely close to the case, as Kansas City dropped game one of its three-game set by a final score of 8-0.
Following a lengthy rain delay, both teams got going early and often as if they wanted to get the game over with rather quickly. The squads were scoreless until the top of the fourth inning, when a Bo Bichette home run broke the tie and put Toronto up 2-0. Danny Jansen added another run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth, then Royals starter Daniel Lynch fell apart in the sixth inning via a pair of additional home runs. After the game, manager Mike Matheny spoke about the mistakes his 25-year-old lefty made.
May 1, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Daniel Lynch (52) delivers a pitch against the New York Yankees in the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
"He had good stuff today," Matheny said. "I know that's not what anybody wants to hear when you give up runs like that. But to be able to take a team like that and only give up three hits through those five, you're doing some things right. Unfortunately, when he did make mistakes, they jumped all over him."
Lynch's "stuff" has proved to be good this season. With that said, it hasn't been as sharp in recent outings. In his first six starts of 2022, he tossed 30 innings while posting a 3.30 ERA with 29 strikeouts to 13 walks. In four games since, however, his 182/3 innings have seen him post an 8.68 ERA while maintaining a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 14-to-9. Lynch's season ERA is now 5.36, and he's gone from arguably the Royals' most promising pitcher to someone who's not even performing at a league-average level. His Monday pitch chart highlights his mistakes:
Aside from his clear misses for walks, Lynch's home run offerings were all obvious mistakes as well. The Bichette jack was changeup left too high, Santiago Espinal's was a changeup over the plate and Vladimir Guerrero's came off a slider left too high. Against one of baseball's most potent lineups, those pitches have to land either lower in the strike zone or be blatant misses off the plate. Catching some of the plate and being in prime hitting position in the zone is a recipe for disaster, and all three pitches were essentially left on a tee for Toronto's hitters.
As Trey Donovan of Inside the Royals recently wrote, Lynch's fastball is the most important key to his development moving forward. Opponents are hitting .311 against it this year and while it's an improved offering over what the Royals saw last year, they still need more. Ironically, it was his secondary arsenal that got him into trouble on Monday night. If he can find a happy medium and simply avoid making so many mistakes, his numbers should come back down. He's flashed too much to not snap out of the funk, but it will take some work. For the sake of the Royals, they'll hope for better results soon.
