Two games into a long season is no time to panic, but the Royals offense so far has produced only the bare minimum.
After scoring just one run on Opening Day, the Royals were held to that total again Saturday as they lost 5-1 to the Twins at Kauffman Stadium. Twins right-hander Joe Ryan retired the first 10 batters he faced, giving up a lone run in the sixth.
Ryan (1-0) held the Royals to three hits while striking out five and walking one in 5 1/3 innings. It marked the second straight strong start by a Twins pitcher as Pablo Lopez gave up just one run in seven innings on Opening Day.
“They’ve thrown the ball really well,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We knew coming into this series both of those starters are really good. They’ve got a deep bullpen. Those guys at the back end have four pitches and throw really hard. So you know they’re going to be tough at-bats.”
Bobby Witt Jr. and MJ Melendez each had two hits, with Melendez driving in Witt on a base hit in the sixth that gave the Royals the lead. The Royals appeared to be in good shape at that point as Seth Lugo in his Royals debut pitched six scoreless while giving up just two hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He also induced eight groundball outs.
“My goal is to pitch as deep as possible,” Lugo said. “And if you’re hunting strikeouts that tends to get the pitch count up quite a bit. But if you’re going for contact and weak ground balls, that’s my gameplan.”
The Royals (0-2) signed Lugo to a three-year, $45 million contract in the offseason in hopes that he can help stabilize a rotation that has four new starters from last year’s squad.
“He threw the ball really well,” Quatraro said. “He had good movement, he was locating, deceptive and he gave us six shutout innings. You saw the weak contact. You saw the groundballs. You saw when he needed a strikeout, he went to the breaking ball to get the swing and miss.
“Is he going to go scoreless every time? No, probably not. But you feel really confident that he can do what he needs to do that day.”
The Twins, though, got to the Royals bullpen, scoring one on James McArthur in the eighth and four against Will Smith in the ninth as Christian Vasquez and Alex Kirilloff had RBIs and Byron Buxton added a two-run double.
But while the Royals wait for the offense to come around, Quatraro believes the starting rotation will keep them afloat and the wins will come.
“If we continue to pitch like that, we’re going to be fine,” Quatraro said.
UP NEXT
Twins right-hander Bailey Ober will face Royals right-hander Brady Singer on Sunday in the series finale.
