Royals POSTCAST: Kansas City Royals walk-off the Pirates

Royals POSTCAST: Kansas City Royals walk-off the Pirates

This is the Royals Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Kansas City Royals, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Welcome in to another Royals Postcast and tonight I host Jack Johnson filling in for Chance Lebo. But we are in a much better mood tonight because I believe I finally have the connection fixed as the Royals walk off the Pittsburgh Pirates make that three in a row. They are six and two in the month of July and they’ve already doubled their win total from the month of June. And even though in this game it got a little bit dicey, it felt like one of those outcomes where the Royals just make one too many mistakes late. You had Seth Lugo hang a curveball to Nick Gonzalez. You also had the uh bad inning from Lucas Ersig where a soft single, multiple walks, a pass ball and air. It leads to the Pirates tying the game, but you got a great inning from Carlos Estz in the ninth and then some great at bats in the bottom of the ninth. Mel Garcia gets it done. Salvador Perez gets it done. You got Jack Kaggleó in the one-two count moving the runner over to third with a deep fly ball to right center field. He also homered in this game, his first home run at Kaufman Stadium. And then Nick Loftton, who’s going to be the story of this postcast. He comes up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth really as calm as you could be. I know he’s already got a very calm and steady stance, but he saw one pitch outside, barely missed off the plate, and then just guided one into left center field. Whether Cruz makes that catch or not, um the Royals were going to find a way to win that game on a sack fly or a single as it ended up being. So, the Royals now 45 and 48. They’re going to go for a sweep tomorrow with Chris Bubich on the bump. But let’s circle back to Nick Loftton because he is the one we’re going to be kicking off the show with. This is what you’ll be talking about. So, let’s talk about Nick Loftton, right? Um, those were two really solid at bats that he ended the game with. Um, or I should say end his night with because he had the two-run home run in the seventh and then he’s got the walk-off single in the ninth inning. And he’s one of those guys that just for a long time you have been waiting to turn things around. You have been waiting just to catch fire a little bit. And he could always put up the AAA numbers. That was never going to be an issue for him. But now you’re seeing back-to-back nights. And hey, it is just two games. The sample size is incredibly small. But and here’s one of our commenters right here talking about Nick Loftton needing more at bats. I do recall that. And uh you’re exactly right. At least for the time being. I mean, who else should be playing over Nick Loftton? If he’s going to be the left fielder until maybe you make a move at least, I’m fine with that. Ride the hot hand even if that hot hand is only for two games. I mean, how desperate have the Royals been just for any sort of spark from this lineup? It might be a babyfaced Nick Loftton accidentally shaving his goatee, but it it works out. If that’s the spark they need, all the better. But you have the top of the order come up in the eighth inning. And I did want to highlight this a little bit. Top of the order comes up in the eighth inning and you got Jonathan India, you got Bobby Wood Jr., you got Vinnie Pascantino. In my mind, I’m going if you’re going to take the lead, if you are going to win this game, it’s got to be here. Even though you got Mike hitting cleanup, you’ve got Salvador Perez hitting fifth, you got Kagleion who homered hitting sixth, these are the three guys you want up if you’re going to start any rally late. Cuz then I’m thinking O’Neal Cruz is leading it off in the ninth inning. Now, Carlos Estz hasn’t thrown since Sunday. I guess that’s not too many days removed, but you get my point. He makes one mistake like Seth Lugo did and you no longer are tied and you’re trying to scratch and claw back probably against Bedar in the ninth inning if that was my best guess. I want to say that he was warming up um in the bottom of the eighth inning. But they go down one two three and then facing Denny Santana who had been stellar this year was coming off the suspension for fighting a fan in New York. I I want to say it was Michael Garcia comes up and if you leave one out over the plate, he’s just going to punch it into left field. He did exactly that. Salvador Perez, and I was concerned about this. He gets behind O2. He’s a little bit swing happy. And I shouldn’t say a little bit, a lot of bit swing happy. And he’s always been that way. But in my mind, I’m going just don’t hit into a double play. Give Jack Kagleion a chance to park one in the seats and right field. I know that’s asking a lot. I really should have just been asking for a single to right center to get Garcia to third, but Salvi just being a bad ball hitter drops one into left. And now it sets up first and second. And Jack Kaggleó had a somewhat similar spot when they were facing the Dodgers at the end of uh June or I guess I should say the the was it the final week of June? I want to say it was. He comes up and it’s that first pitch double play ball. And I’m sure that was in his mind. I have no doubt in my mind that it was constantly circulating around his brain. Just do a job here. And we know he’s not going to lay down a bunt. We certainly know he’s not going to be doing that. So his job is to at minimum get Garcia over to third. You win it, all the better. But when you’re hitting sub 160 and even though you homerred tonight, it’s just about getting the job done. And he takes a pitch that’s low in the zone and golfs it out to right center field and it moves Garcia over to third. Exactly what he needed to do in that spot. And then Nick Loftton, you’re starting to wonder, is a bunt coming here? Is he going to roll into a double play? Are they going to walk him to face John Rave? uh somebody that’s not hitting as well as Loftton of late, though John Rae has shown his ability to draw a walk. All of those things were likely being contemplated in the Royals dugout. What are we going to do here? Nick Loftton coming to the plate. What is my job here? My job is to loft the ball into the air, get it deep enough so that Garcia can score from third. and he spits on a pitch that was just off the plate and he is able to drive a ball into left center field almost the exact same spot from when the Royals last walk-off happened which was Freddy Fer against Boston. It was that extra inning affair where nobody had scored until the 10th inning I want to say it was and they were just trading it back and forth and they wound up winning that game. But Nick Loftton man hope he’s in the lineup tomorrow. Hope he’s in the lineup moving forward. I got no issue whatsoever giving Nick Loftton the starts. And if he doesn’t start hitting well, if he goes into a bit of a rut, okay, but the Royals can’t pick and choose who they want the hot hand to be. If you’ve got somebody for a week, that’s fine. And for the the month of July, they’ve gotten that. They’re six and two. The offense is starting to click a little bit more. And how important was this final week leading into the All-Star break? You look at this Pirates series and you said you got to sweep them. And this Pirates team is a bit volatile. Now, they did dodge Paul Skins, but prior to getting swept in Seattle where they didn’t score a run, they had won six in a row and outscored their opponents like 40ome to6. Might have been 40ome to four now that I think about it. Like completely dominated. It’s not a great Pirates team, but it’s also a Pirates team that went into New York and swept the Mets. They swept St. Louis, and they are a bad road team, but the Royals have done so far what they needed to do. If Chris Bubich, their lone representative in the All-Star game amongst the pitching staff, if he can shove tomorrow and you sweep them, you got quite the series this weekend against the New York Mets to close out the first half. All right, let’s take our first break of the show. When we come back, we are going to be diving into a little bit of Seth Lugo’s outing. I also want to touch a little bit on what the bullpen showed tonight and just give an overall reaction or more of a reaction, I should should say, to uh what the Royals were able to do tonight and what we should expect moving forward. You are listening to the Lockdown Royals post on the Lockdown Royals channel. We are back here on the Lockdown Royals postcast. Appreciate all the comments that have been sent in here. Again, I am your f-illin host tonight, Jack Johnson. I’m feeling great that the connection is holding up much better than it was last night. That was about as frustrating as it possibly could be. Even though the Royals won in dominating fashion, I will absolutely take this over and over and over again. But before we dive into our final segments, want to give a shout out to two sponsors. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or highstakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. New to FanDuel, new customers can bet just $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. Also, if you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. Think about the last time you had a service emergency, like a burst pipe. If the first plumber didn’t answer, did you wait? Nope. You just called the next one. That’s why having a reliable business line is so important, and that’s why you need Open Phone. Open Phone is the number one business phone system that helps you streamline and scale customer communication, all from an app on your phone or your computer. Open Phone is offering Lockdown Royals listeners 20% off on your first six months at openphone.com/lockdownmlb. That’s op.com/lockedonmlb. And if you have existing numbers with another service, open phone will port them over at no extra charge. Open phone, no missed calls, no missed customers. Uh getting some more comments here on the line. Uh yeah, Rex Hudler saying that Mitch Keller was the Pirates ace. There is a guy named Paul Skins throwing for Pittsburgh. But I do got to commend the effort of Mitch Keller tonight after that home run to Jack Kagleion. He dominated until Nick Loftton got him again in the seventh inning. But I just feel bad for the Pirates starters. Uh truthfully, you’ve got three guys in the top five that had the least amount of run support in all of baseball. Um fortunately the Royals did not have to face Paul SK. As a baseball fan, I’m kind of upset that didn’t happen. I would have loved to gone out there and seen Paul Skins verse, you know, Seth Lugo or Chris Bubich. Not sure it would have lined up because skins threw on Sunday. So, I guess it would have been Paul Skins versus um Noah Cameron who once again would have to be going up against an ace of another team, but they dodged him and they’re not going to be able to see him this year. Though, who knows? Maybe Bobby Wood Jr. could get in a bat against skins if he’s not going to start in the All-Star game. I highly doubt that he won’t be starting though. So, um I I guess we should see, you know, what that’s going to look like here coming up at the end of this week, I believe it is. We should know, uh who everybody should be starting. I know we’ve got the lineups out there, but the names of the the starting pitchers we should know by the end of the week. So, back to the Royals winning this game. Seth Lugo, uh once again, just dominant. Absolutely dominant. I know there was six innings of two-run ball, a quality start. He could have gone a little bit deeper into the game. Uh Materuro pulled him right after that home run. You also had O’Neal Cruz coming up. You wanted to get a lefty in there and it was lefty, righty, lefty. Look, if it was a different spot in the game, the Royals still had the lead. Maybe I leave him back out there. The Royals had a fresh bullpen, though. But that doesn’t take away how good Seth Lugo was. He’s facing not a very good lineup. Still, I thought he had all of his stuff working. And unfortunately, the two mistakes he made tonight were the two pitches that were very costly. They were two solo shots. O’Neal Cruz went 465 ft into the fountains. And by the way, I have never seen a guy hit a ball 460 ft and be as unexited, as unenthusiastic as you could possibly be. Tagging a ball like that, putting one in the fountains, and looking like you just rolled over to second base. And I’m sure it’s it’s been a struggle. I know he was a little bit upset in moving to center field after being a shortstop. the Pirates aren’t playing good baseball. Still, he’s going to be in the home run derby. And after that moonshot, I’m going to be pretty thrilled to watch him hit a couple uh at what would it be? In Trust Bank in Atlanta. So, I’m sure he’s going to hit a few that are not just 460 ft, but a little bit further than that. Seth Lugo though did his job on El Serpa, very underrated there to get two strikeouts in a clean ending there in the seventh. Lucas Ersig not the best, right? I’ve never really seen him fight his command like that and uh not overly worried. He had six scoreless outings going into that one, but he definitely had everything just, you know, tailing right and away. And Tommy Fam drew a walk. You also walked Spencer Horwitz after being ahead in the count. You had the bloop single by Connor Fetta. Then you had the pickoff air. Like if there was one way the Pirates were going to score off of Lucas Ersig, that was going to be it. like it was going to take a bloop single, an air, a walk, a walk, and then a fieldielder’s choice with the way that the Pirates offense has been playing. Uh, that was the only way it could have happened. And Brian Reynolds, who we’ve talked about, came up in that spot, 3-1 count. I know you want to be aggressive there, but Brian Reynolds was also one for his last 26 27 3-1 count. A guy who’s not thrown many strikes. To swing in that spot, you better be sure you’re getting something in the air. And he didn’t do that. and he was fortunate to beat out that ground ball to at least tie the game. I thought though with the way Ersig was pitching. Man, the Royals uh were very very fortunate to escape with that just being um a tie game there. And then in the ninth inning, Carlos Estz gives up the one out double to Key Brian Hayes who’s been very hot of late hitting over 340. Then gets Sinsky to pop up and then he also gets the popup to former Royal Adam Frasier. And I don’t know about you guys, uh, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that Nick Loftton was going to be the one that or not Nick Loftton, excuse me. I was looking at one of the comments that Adam Fraser was going to be the one to uh, give the Pirates the lead there. It just always happens that way, right? The guy you had last year, Tommy Fam, burned the Royals yesterday, had an opportunity to burn him again tonight, and then you have Adam Frasier. Like, I was just predicting a little shallow bloop into left field that drops in between three guys. you know, the triangle out there behind short, left, and and center field. I was just preparing myself for something like that to happen. But as Stephs gets out of it, two popups, and as we brought it up in that ninth inning, everybody did their job. Everybody was able to just come through in a spot where the Royals needed them to, where the fans needed them to. If they would have lost tonight, I I just I don’t know how I could have come on here and tried to even spin a series win tomorrow as as a great thing. They need a sweep. They need a sweep going into this Mets series. We’ve been saying it all of yesterday. We said it today. They got to find a way to get a sweep in this series. You feel good about Chris Bubich going tomorrow. His final start of the first half because it will be Lorenzan or Waka Lorenzan and then Cameron throwing against New York. So this is his last chance to end the first half with a bang before heading off to Atlanta for the Allstar break. Well, that’s going to do it for another edition of the Royals postcast here on the Lockdown Royals channel. I have been your host Jack Johnson filling in for Chance Lebo TBD. what the plan is tomorrow. If Chance is not back in time, then you can expect me doing this again. But I feel good finally that I’ve got the connection working out for uh the live stream here. I should probably knock on wood because there’s always a chance it goes haywire tomorrow. But Royals get it done. They walk off the Pirates make that three in a row. And since that emotional win in Seattle, they have now only lost one game and that was on Saturday again Diamondbacks. So, you look to what’s ahead, you can find a way to sweep this game. And then you got a Mets team coming in that yes, played well against the Yankees, but outside of that series right before this one against Baltimore, I believe they just haven’t been playing their best baseball, still have a lot of star power on that team. But first things first, you got to take care of business tomorrow. Chris Bubich versus Bailey Falter. We will see if the Royals can go for their first sweep since sweeping the Rangers in Arlington. But until tomorrow, you take it easy, Kansas City.

Jack Johnson reacts to Nick Loftin and the Royals walking off the Pirates to take the series and double their home win total from June. Next, he praises another great start from Seth Lugo and takes a look ahead for what’s next in Kansas City.

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