Three Things to Take Away From the Royals' 4-3 Loss to the Tigers
The Kansas City Royals weren't quite able to put everything together as they fall 4-3 to the Detroit Tigers tonight.
With tonight's loss, the Royals have dropped 10 of their last 11 games and have lost their fifth-straight contest.
Kansas City falls to 30-36 on the season while the Tigers advance to 28-39. Here's what I took away from the game.
Nicky Lopez continues to shine.
Whether it's on the field or at the plate. Nicky Lopez has really taken advantage of the opportunity he was given when Adalberto Mondesi was injured to start the season. Before Mondesi's injury, Lopez was going to start the season in Triple-A Omaha but he got the chance to start on Opening Day and has played well since. With Mondesi once again being active, I'll be curious to see how Royals manager Mike Matheny organizes the lineup.
Jake Brentz has been electric.
A silver lining in this Royals season has been Jake Brentz really coming into his own. He currently is on a dominant stretch and he didn't slow up tonight. In his last 15 innings, Brentz has allowed no runs on three hits while striking out 17 and allowing an opponent batting average of .064. I've been really encouraged by the core of Kansas City's relievers. There are good things to come and take away from there.
The Royals got some hits with runners in scoring position.
Even though Kansas City wasn't able to stop its losing skid, the Royals were finally able to get multiple runs on the board. While there still is a lot of room for improvement as they left multiple men on base again today, it's a step in the right direction. At this point of the season, that's all I look for. Baby steps.
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Tucker D. Franklin is an alumnus of Northwest Missouri State University, majoring in sports media and graduating in 2019. Tucker was previously the sports editor for The Maryville Forum and is now the editor-in-chief of Inside the Royals as well as the deputy editor for Arrowhead Report on SI.com and the host of the Roughing the Kicker Chiefs podcast. Follow Tucker on Twitter @tuckerdfranklin.