Blowing big leads
We’ve been there
The 2024 edition of the Royals has gotten off to an encouraging start. After losing their first two games of the season, the young Royals put together ten wins in their next thirteen games. Included in that steak were consecutive beatdowns of the trash can-banging Astros, by a combined score of 24-to-5. That dog can hunt.
Part of that run was a nifty eight-game win streak between April 4-11. The final game of the eight-game streak featured a nine-run first inning for the Boys in Blue. Innings like that, while fun to watch, are exceedingly rare. Eleven of the Royals first thirteen batters collected hits. Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr., and Vinnie each collected two hits in the inning.
Baseball Reference currently has the Royals’ odds of making the playoffs at near 50 percent. Considering its only late-April, I’ll happily take that. Winning baseball is fun, and I hope this team can continue playing winning ball all summer, certainly for selfish reasons, but also to expose a new generation to the joy of rooting for a winning baseball team.
Going back to that big first inning, the last time that happened to the Royals was on August 23, 2006. The 2006 team was some kind of bad, finishing at 62-100. Allard Baird lost his job as GM and on May 31 of that year, the team hired Dayton Moore. It would take Moore some time to turn the ship around, seven years to be exact, but he finally got the job done.
I remember watching that August 23 game on television. It was a hot Wednesday night, and this was the middle game of a three-game set with Cleveland. That Indians team still had some bats with guys like Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta and Shin-Soo Choo. Lefty Jorge De La Rosa got the start for the Royals and after getting two quick outs, gave up a long home run to Hafner.
Former Royal Paul Byrd got the start for Cleveland and things came off the rails rapidly. David DeJesus led off with a single. Byrd uncorked a wild pitch which moved DeJesus to second. Mark Grudzielanek reached on an error. Mark Teahen followed with an RBI single. Mike Sweeney deposited the second pitch he saw over the left-center fence. Fourteen pitches into the game and the Royals had a 4-to-1 lead. Emil Brown singled. Byrd rallied to get Ryan Shealy on strikes and Paul Bako on a fly to left. Andres Blanco got things moving again with a single. Joey Gathright used his speed to leg out a triple, scoring Brown and Blanco. DeJesus got his second hit of the inning with another single, scoring Gathright. Same for Grudzielanek, who cranked a Byrd fastball into the left field seats. 8-to-1 Royals. Manager Eric Wedge had seen enough of Byrd and called on Jason Davis to end the bleeding. Didn’t happen.
Mark Teahen and Mike Sweeney stroked consecutive singles followed by a double off the bat of Emil Brown. 10-to-1, Kansas City. Shealy wore the goat horns, lining out to left, ending the carnage with his second out of the inning. The Royals had to be feeling pretty good about their chances, right? De La Rosa cruised through the second before wobbling a bit in the third, giving up consecutive long balls to Aaron Boone and Sizemore. Still, it was 10 to 3, KC. In the bag, no?
The Indians kept chipping away, plating three more runs in the fourth off De La Rosa and Todd Wellmeyer. It was about this time that I started getting a cold pit in my stomach. There’s no way they could blow a nine-run lead, right? Wellmeyer faced nine batters over 1 and 1/3 innings, giving up four hits, two walks and three runs. In the sixth, Buddy Bell had seen enough of Mr. Wellmeyer and brought in Jimmy Gobble with two men on and no outs. Gobble got Sizemore on strikes before giving up a long double to Jason Micheals, which scored both runners and made it a one-run game.
The Royals woke from their slumber in the bottom of the sixth against Roberto Hernandez. Teahen singled, Sweeney doubled him home. Shealy ripped a double, scoring Sweeney. Bako worked a walk before a Gathright single plated Shealy. 13-to-9, Kansas City.
The Royals had the bases loaded in the seventh, but couldn’t get a run in. Joel Peralta worked a clean seventh and eighth inning to give the Royals a chance to win it. Bell brought in his newly appointed closer, Joe Nelson, and the inning started with promise. Nelson retired Michaels on strikes. Just two more outs. Easy peasy.
Travis Hafner drew a full-count walk. Victor Martinez worked the count full before stoking a run-scoring double. Ryan Garko followed with another double and suddenly it was 13-to-11. Nelson kept battling, getting Peralta on strikes. Two-run lead, only need one out. The 2006 Royals never made it easy. Hector Luna stoked the third double of the inning, plating Garko and cutting the lead to one run. You see where this is going, don’t you?
Bell, probably feeling as nauseous as I was, decided now was the time to change pitchers, bringing in his former closer Ambiorix Burgos to face Shin-Soo Choo. I can still see Choo’s swing. Choo was a good hitter, and he got this one, lacing a triple into the right field corner, scoring Luna with the tying run. Wow. 13 all. Burgos recovered to get Aaron Boone on a ground out to end the bleeding.
The deflated Royals went down meekly in the ninth, strikeout swinging, strikeout looking, foul out.
Bell opted to bring in Andrew Sisco for the tenth. In case you don’t remember Andrew Sisco, here’s a recap: big boy, 6’7, 270-pound lefty. Threw hard, had some potential. The Royals picked him up from the Cubs in the 2004 Rule 5 draft. The Royals were dead set determined to see if Sisco could pitch in the majors. He made 67 appearances in 2005 followed by 65 more in 2006. In December of 2006, the Royals cut bait and sent him to the White Sox in exchange for Royal Review favorite Ross Gload.
At this point in the game, Bell’s options were limited. Sisco was their seventh pitcher of the night. Sisco started the 10th by hitting Grady Sizemore. Michaels laid down a nice bunt to move him to second. The Royals intentionally walked Hafner to set up a double play. It looked like it might work as Sisco got Martinez on a strikeout. Just needing one more out, just one more strike, Ryan Garko ripped a two-strike pitch into center for a run-scoring single giving Cleveland the lead. Sisco walked Peralta the old-fashioned way before yielding another run-scoring single to Hector Luna. At this point, with Choo coming to the plate, I thought I might vomit. Alas, Sisco got him looking to get the Royals off the field.
15 to 13 Cleveland.
The Indians countered with their sixth pitcher of the night, rookie Tom Mastny. Shealy led off the inning with a single, always a good start. It went south in a hurry. Esteban German hit into a fielder’s choice. Reggie Sanders struck out as did Gathright, and it was over.
The Royals had scored a record ten runs in the first and still managed to lose. That was tough to do, but by golly, they did it. That was Royals baseball in those years.
The 2024 team is different. This group is not going to lose 100 games. They’re not going to blow any ten-run leads. They might not make the playoffs, but they will be entertaining, and they will win more games than they did in 2023. The young guys on this team are growing up right before our eyes. 2024 has a chance to be a special summer.