The Royals Inspired and Disappointed All in the Same Week (Again)
The Kansas City Royals started the week winning three of four before closing the week by losing two games. Ultimately, they finished .500 by the time the weekend was over with. Over that span, they won the final series of their road trip against the Los Angeles Angels and lost the first series of their homestand against the Oakland Athletics.
Let’s take a look at some of the best (and worst) storylines from the past week in Royals baseball.
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Big Monday for Dozier, Benintendi, Bubic
Andrew Benintendi and Hunter Dozier became only the sixth pair of teammates in Royals history to hit a home run and steal a base in the same game. Salvador Perez also hit a home run but was unable to join Dozier and Benintendi in their feat of swiping a bag.
Kris Bubic had his best game of the year, striking out seven and only allowing two runs in six innings pitched. The Royals won the first game of the series against the Angels by a final score of 6-2 thanks to all of these efforts.
Bobby Witt Jr. hits two home runs in wild win
The Royals secured a wild 12-11 victory in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, and Bobby Witt Jr. led the way with the first two-home run game of his career. He finished the game 3-for-5 with four RBIs, two runs scored, one walk and no strikeouts.
Hunter Dozier added another three hits to the mix. Carlos Sanatana continued his hot June with four hits and five RBIs. The Royals needed every last bit of the production they got from their lineup in what was a candidate for MLB Game of the Year.
A brief diversion: It would be irresponsible to not mention Shohei Ohtani’s impact on this series.
Shohei Ohtani dominates in two facets
Ohtani single-handedly kept the Angels in the series. He had a two-home run night on Tuesday, and both long balls were three-run shots. That included one in the bottom of the ninth inning to push the game to extras. The Angels' superstar Swiss Army knife had eight RBI in that 12-11 loss to Kansas City.
The following day, Ohtani shut out the Royals for eight innings. This outing included striking out a career-high 13 batters while only allowing one walk in a 5-0 Angels victory. According to my research from throughout the week, this appears to be the first time in Major League Baseball history that a player hit two home runs in one game and followed it with 13 strikeouts as a pitcher in the following game.
Ohtani deserves all the respect in the world, including a mere couple of paragraphs on a site dedicated to the Royals.
Perez to the IL, Greinke and Olivares return
Salvador Perez re-injured his left thumb and had surgery to repair it. This is unfortunate, as the All-Star catcher was heating up at the plate while continuing to be a steady hand behind the dish for Kansas City's largely young pitching staff.
Zack Greinke returned from the Injured List to kick off the homestand against the Athletics. He promptly had one of his best outings of the season, going six innings while striking out four and only allowing one run. He finally picked up his first win of the season as well.
That win was thanks to the bat of Edward Olivares, who also just returned that same day as well. Olivares hit two no-doubt solo home runs in the third and fifth innings to give Greinke and the Royals all the run support they would need for the victory.
Hug watch?
It’s about that time of year in Kansas City: hug watch. The Royals have several players who could be traded before the deadline this year. Santana is heating up at the right time, and Andrew Benintendi has been the best overall player for the Royals all season and is likely to draw the most interest from teams in the coming weeks.
Whit Merrifield seems to always be in the discussion, but nothing ever seems to materialize regarding him. Will this year be different? Michael A. Taylor could be another player to keep an eye on as rumors begin to heat up.
The Royals will finish their brief homestand with three games against the Texas Rangers before heading to Detroit for three games to end the week. Kansas City's next game is scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m. CST on Monday at Kauffman Stadium evening against the Rangers.
Mark Van Sickle was born in Seattle, Washington, but has lived in the Kansas City area for 30 years. He has followed the city’s sports teams along the way, from the KC Blades to the Chiefs to the Wizards/Sporting KC, now the KC Current and — of course — the Royals. Mark has been a radio producer and on-air talent in Kansas City since 2011 and is currently a producer for morning shows on KCMO Talk Radio. He is a writer and podcast host for the Heartland College Sports Network, a writer for Arrowhead Report on FanNation and a consistent guest on Roughing the Kicker Chiefs podcast. He is also a writer and weekly contributor to FanNation’s InsideTheRoyals.com