Offense goes quiet again, shut out for third straight game

Photo by Joe Nicholson-USA Today Sports

  So how y’all feeling right about now? I’m guessing there’s a lot of angry pissed off Royals fans out there. And rightfully so. They’re in the middle of a 5 game losing skid and the worst offensive drought since 2008. Last night was the third straight shut out as the offense looks completely out of rhythm. You can say see ya later to Hosmer’s hitting streak. They made Wade Miley look like an ace when in reality he’s a bum. The Royals allowed his ERA to shrink 2 whole points down to 5.06 thanks to his complete game shutout. He was allowing opposing hitters to hit .344 against him before last night. So what happened?

   The Royals have prided themselves on “moving the line”. They are aggressive at the plate but aren’t looking to drive the ball very often. I saw an interesting take on the Twitter about the reason for the offensive struggles. Perhaps teams are taking advantage of the Royals overly aggressive style and getting them to make weak contact. So far through this Seattle series I haven’t seen many hard hit balls. Everything is on the ground. If you’ve been a fan of this team for the last couple years this is not a new scouting report on the Royals. This style of play got them a world championship. They just want to put the bat on the ball and see what happens and let the other team make mistakes. Sooner or later though you have to MAKE something happen yourself. Teams aren’t making as many fielding mistakes that the Royals can take advantage of. The Royals have mastered the art of capitalizing on other teams miscues, but recently they haven’t been capitalizing on their opportunities. Moustakas continues to look locked in and Hosmer’s numbers still look good despite losing his hitting streak. Outside of them there’s no one to be optimistic about. Morales, Cain and Gordon all look like cave men swinging a club instead of Major Leaguers. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a move to make as far the lineup is concerned. One move I think Ned should explore is making Dyson the full time starter even against south paws. Let’s see if he’s gotten a better approach to lefties even though historically he’s not been able to do much against them. He looks great against right handers so I think it’s worth a shot to see him against a lefty. Maybe you move Escobar out of the lead-off spot and insert Dyson, but you know as soon as Dyson slumps people will ask to put Escobar back. I’m especially frustrated with Alex Gordon. He’s striking out in just over 40% of his at-bats. Is that bad? I’m not sure but it ain’t good I know that. Even when he does make contact it’s rarely hard contact. If it wasn’t for his all-world defense fans would want his head on some Game of Thrones style. Prize prospect Raul Mondesi Jr. Is not ready to contribute to the major league team as a full-time hitter. Not yet anyway. There have been rumblings about Bubba Starling being close to coming up but I suspect it won’t be until September. So, the lineup is what it is at this point. You just have to hope the squad will snap out of it quick fast and in a hurry

   Then there’s Yordano Ventura. Pretty simply he was bad. He already had 14 walks in 4 starts before last night and he added 6 more to his total. His walks weren’t just a tad off the target. He was missing high and wide and gave the Mariners easy pitches to lay off of. The home run ball was also a problem as its always been for him. Although he’s looked good overall this year, last night was not what you want to see. The Royals were down 4-0 by the 2nd inning and with our bats right now it might as well have been 40-0. Ned Yost and pitching coach Dave Eiland have to be concerned with the increasing number of free passes given by Ventura. He still has to work on being more consistent from start to start. Dillon Gee looked solid in relief of Ventura although walks was the theme for him too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a starter sooner rather than later if Medlen can’t string together consecutive quality starts. Pitching is not the culprit right now. It’s not helping but the offense has to wear the weight of the blame on this one.
  
   Now me myself, I’m not too concerned yet. I’m chalking up their struggles to this west coast road trip. The game of baseball will humble you in a minute. You will have hot stretches and you will have cold streaks. There’s 162 games so there’s plenty of time to look like world champions but there’s also going to be times where you won’t recognize who you’re watching. The game of baseball is a marathon not a sprint like the NFL. So is this the perfect time to panic? That’s for you decide. You
can have an ulcer over this team if you want. You can be mad at Ned all you want. As for me, I’m going to have a little faith in my boys in blue. I think they deserve that much.