Before I talk about the actual game, give me a moment to jump on my soap box. In the second inning of the contest, the Fox broadcast booth – featuring Adam Amin, Adam Wainwright, and A.J. Pierzynski in one of the most fun and informative national broadcast booths you’re likely to see – was doing an in-game interview with Atlanta pitcher Chris Sale. During the interview there was a blown call at second base, Maikel Garcia fielded a ground ball attempted to step on second and throw to first for the double play. Ordinarily, we could just be talking about how bizarre a shift the Royals were running to allow for that to happen but Garcia didn’t actually step on second before he threw to first. The runner, Ronald Acuña Jr., should have been safe. The booth saw the replay and immediately started telling Chris Sale that Atlanta should challenge the play. Ultimately, Atlanta was not allowed to challenge – probably because they took too long, but it was never made clear by the umpire – and no harm was done.
To be clear, I don’t think the broadcast booth was attempting to help Atlanta cheat. I think they just didn’t fully consider their actions. But that’s just as big a problem for these in-game interviews – which are a poor way to watch a game and a poor way to interview someone – that something like that could happen unintentionally. MLB absolutely cannot allow these to continue now that we’ve seen this happen. They were always a bad idea, but now they’re a bad idea that can call into question the integrity of the game. If Atlanta had challenged and won, it would have absolutely appeared like they had cheated to do so even if the call would have been right and even if Chris Sale hadn’t relayed what the broadcast booth was telling him.
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OK, now I guess I have to talk about the game.
Michael Wacha was terrific for six innings in this one. He struck out seven while giving up one walk and allowing three hits – all singles – in six innings. The Royals needed him to be good because the offense was still a bit sluggish. Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg got the seventh and eighth innings and did their jobs, too. It was odd to see Erceg pitching the eighth against the bottom of the Atlanta order because he’s so often been used against the tougher parts of the lineup, but I guess Q figured he could go by innings instead of difficulty with three proven backend relievers in his bullpen.
Salvador Perez got the Royals their first run of the year with a leadoff shot in the seventh inning.
That one was a wall-scraper, but hit at 105.8 MPH off the bat of the captain to left with an estimated distance of 390 feet. I guess Truist park has a really deep left field.
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The Royals scored a second run in the eighth. Maikel Garcia took a one-out walk, went to third on a Bobby Witt Jr. broken bat single, and scored on a Vinnie Pasquantino groundout to first. Many people were complaining about the contact play last year, but it was crucial to scoring the run this time. If Maikel isn’t running, he can’t score there because Olson didn’t kick the ball far enough away. Honestly, the thought of Garcia going home might have caused Olson to rush the play and led to the error in the first place. So whenever you see the contact play again this year, remember, sometimes it works!
And now the bad, bad news.
We talked before the game about how Reynaldo López’s velocity had been down all spring and it had to be a huge concern for Atlanta. You wouldn’t have known it watching him pitch tonight as he was back into the 95-96 MPH range with his fastball for most of the game. That gave me some hope that perhaps Carlos Estévez would turn his velocity back on in the ninth inning. That hope was shortlived as the first pitch he threw was a fastball that missed armside and only got to 90 MPH. The result was predictable from there.
Estévez walked Drake Baldwin then gave up a single to Matt Olson. Miraculously, he got Austin Riley to pop out to second and you began to hope he could finesse his way out of it. That hope was also short lived. Mike Yastrzemski singled to center to drive in the first run and return the bases to first and third. Estévez then lost all of his control and walked Ozzie Albies on four pitches. My best guess is he realized his lack of velocity was going to prevent him from getting the job done and he started overthrowing.
You’ll not in that image that all of his pitches missed armside and high. The first pitch isn’t even visible; it’s that far outside.
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He fired a 92 MPH fastball right down the middle to Michael Harris II and was incredibly lucky it was hit on the ground right back up the middle. Estévez was unlucky because it hit him instead of carrying through to Witt for a game-ending double play. It became an infield single that left the bases loaded and tied the game.
Next up was Dominic Smith. Smith has been a big leaguer off and on since 2017. He has never put up a starter-quality season outside of 2020. Estévez threw him two pitches in the dirt, then caught the corner with a fastball. He threw another fastball that was called a ball, but Salvy challenged it because the Royals still had both their challenges and why not? It turned out to be barely a strike. So Carlos tossed another ball in the dirt. Knowing a fourth ball would walk home the winning run, he threw a fastball right down the middle. Dominic Smith blasted it to right, game over.
Carlos Estévez now has a 162.02 ERA and a 60.00 FIP. He allowed four hits and two walks in a third of an inning. They weren’t cheap hits, either, all four were hard hit. Three were over 100 MPH exit velocity. You don’t want to overreact to one game, but this is one game that looks exactly like everything we saw during Spring Training. I’m not ready to write Estévez off as an effective reliever, but he cannot be the closer until his velocity and control come back.
Every single mark on his pitching summary that means anything is very, very blue. He might not be washed, but he’s completely unpitchable right now. He either needs to be brought in for blowouts only, or he needs to be diagnosed with an injury.
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I am not going to be furious with Matt Quatraro for sticking with his guy once. Estévez has been telling him that everything is fine, Quatraro chose to believe him and hope it would all come together for the regular season. Much like it did for Reynaldo López. It didn’t, and it was so tremendously bad that Quatraro can’t ignore it. Estévez can’t have a second chance. I don’t know if Q should go with Lucas Erceg, Matt Strahm, or some kind of closer by committee. Whatever the answer is, it can’t include Estévez, not right now.
Just to end things on a bright note, the Royals have lost their opening series each of the last two years, but finished with more wins than losses by the end of it. They’re 0-2 now, but that doesn’t have to mean anything by the time the season ends.
Tomorrow will be the Royals’ first day game as they look to avoid the sweep in Atlanta. Seth Lugo will pitch for KC; Grant Holmes will go for Atlanta. The game will start at 12:35 Royals time and be broadcast on Royals.TV.
