Royals POSTCAST: Royals LOSE, 2-0 | Kansas City FAILS to Support DOMINANT Outing from Stephen Kolek

Royals POSTCAST: Royals LOSE, 2-0 | Kansas City FAILS to Support DOMINANT Outing from Stephen Kolek

[Music] 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. All right, welcome in. It’s going to be a quick show here today on Chance Lebo. Appreciate you for tuning in here, spending your Thursday afternoon with us. A lot of you guys probably at work right now. A lot of you guys probably maybe in school right now. But, uh, if you’re here live, boy, you are a true dieh hard. I appreciate you guys for being here. Um, we’re going to keep it short and quick. Um, Royals teetering on elimination right now. I haven’t checked the latest uh, elimination numbers. Uh, looked like their E number was two heading into today. They lose today to the Mariners by a final score of two to nothing. They didn’t even I didn’t think they were competitive whatsoever today. and they lose two to nothing. Um, this is a really bad showing for the Royals in a a series that man, I was really hoping that they would at least have some competitive energy. They would have some juju, but uh today the Royals just didn’t have anything going for them. Um, they had one thing going for him and it was one of nine. It was Steven Kolick. He was absolutely stellar today. But as of off as often here on this show, we see a dominant outing from a starting pitcher, a young starting pitcher. But the first segment is always what you’ll be talking about. And unfortunately, today it is once again the offense. This is what you’ll be talking about. I mean, I don’t know what the offense was expecting to do today. This was a really good lineup, I thought. I mean, I I don’t love that Mike Estreky is in center field. That probably doesn’t help defensively, but um I I other than that, I really didn’t have any issues with today’s lineup. The only issue I would have potentially had would be Michael Massie being in it. And Michael Massie had a really solid day today. Had the two longest hit balls of the entire day between both sides. Had some pretty hard hit balls. Um but the offense just was dreadful as a whole today. They managed just five hits, zero walks the entire day. They go 0 for four with runners in scoring position. Uh what more can you say? Um this has been the offense we’ve seen all season long. This has been the offense that we have come to hate uh even on this show. I mean just I I don’t know what to even say about the offense at this point. Luis Castillo very very good pitcher. I’ll give him that. Very very good pitcher. But today did not have his best stuff. I didn’t think I mean he was in the zone for the most part. 62% strikes with his fast ball. Um 39 fast balls was pretty solid today. Didn’t throw a sinker very much. Was mostly for seaming. But the Royals were able to get, you know, just six hard hit balls off of him all game across six innings. That just wasn’t good enough and it’s not going to be good enough. Um and OED is bringing it up in the chat. Um you get from Yas, you get from Bobby, from Mike Kel who’s been slumping here recently. Um, you get an 0 for two from Massie, but I felt like he had some pretty solid hits today. I felt like he put the put some better abs together, but just another dreadful day of Royals offense. Um, I thought last night was a a step in the right direction for Kansas City as an offense. Um, but tonight just wasn’t that. I mean, you look at, you know, you look at what we’ve seen from this team here in this series. We’ve seen uh an absolute piss poor performance in game one of the series. They didn’t do anything against the Mariners in game one. Um I’m I’m pulling up the uh the schedule here real quick cuz I remember coming on here and just being like, “What in the world are the Royals doing?” They got absolutely skunk. They were able to put up five runs, but it was really just on the back of Carter Jensen and that was it. Then last night, yeah, you you scored seven runs. I mean, congratulations. That’s a fantastic sevenrun outing, but you went seven innings of just no run, no offense uh in between the three-run homer from Salvi and the two-run homer from Adam Frasier. You see a significant drought last night in terms of offensive output. And today, you’re going up against a guy in Luis Castillo who in my opinion is probably going to get some Sai Young votes. Um is going to be one of the better pitchers in Major League Baseball for the next, you know, you know, half decade. But, you know, you’re going to face good pitchers. It’s Major League Baseball. You just can’t beat up on the the Joe, the Jimmies and the Joe’s all the time. You’re going to have to face the pros at some point. And the Royals just have not done that all season long. Continuously, they have failed to put up good outings. I mean, I thought the Aaron Nola outing on Sunday when they were facing him. I like Aaron Nola a ton. I I think he’s one of the better pitchers in baseball. They tagged him. They got some offense on him. But against the Mariners, who, you know, are the standard. I mean, how long have the Royals been chasing the Mariners? I get it. They’ve won, you know, now 11 of 10, 11 of 12. But the Royals were chasing the Mariners for the longest time. They felt like they could compete with Seattle. And the Mariners have showed you, you know, a Chrysler 300 looks a lot like a a Phantom until a Phantom pulls up. And that’s what we saw today from the Royals. The Royals were the Chrysler 300. They look like a playoff team when you’re facing the the Guardians and you’re facing the White Socks and the A’s and the Angels. When a playoff team actually shows up, the Royals just piss down their leg and just watch pitches go by. They fail to compete. They don’t put up good abs. And today, the Mariners, I mean, they could have they got one run in the in the second inning. I mean, it was early the Mariners got their run and you felt like all game long it was a 10 to nothing Mariners lead because the Royals were not touching Castillo and they were not getting anything off of a bullpen that has been really, really good here recently. Um, give credit where credit’s due. Luis Castillo is a really good pitcher, but at some point you’ve got to perform. It I I don’t want to hear this BS of, well, you know, we we’ll get him next time. We’ll get the next arm. There’s not going to be a next arm. A week from now, there’s going to be three more arms to face and they’ve not The season is basically over. You’ve got nine games left at this point. You can’t. The fact that they were uncompetitive today with nine games remaining just it it explains why we’re so frustrated with the Royals is because they just don’t do enough. They’re not a good enough team at this point. We expected too much from them. Maybe it’s on us as fans, but it sure as heck is on the players and and coaching staff as well. And uh Curtis asked a great question. Curtis, appreciate your question here. Totally mismanage the bottom of the eighth. Why pinch it for Jensen? I I totally agree and I’ve been I don’t know if I would say I’ve been a Q defender. Um I have at points this season defended Matt Couturo. I think he’s a better manager than people give him credit for, but he does make some headscratching decisions. Pinch hitting Randall Gritic in that spot in the uh in the eighth inning for Carter Jensen, who has arguably been the best Royals hitter in this entire series. A guy that’s been on base a ton. You pinch at a guy that is now hitting 172 since you traded for him. He’s supposed to be this left-handed specialist. I mean, I I don’t see anything from Randall Griick and haven’t seen anything from Randall Grick that leads me to believe that he’s a good enough hitter in these spots to deserve a pinch hit to warrant being a pinch hitter. He’s just not good enough. And now we’re here, we’re talking on September 18th of 2025, and we’re talking about the fact that Machurro continues to make the same decisions and the same mistakes that plagued him early in the season. I think there’s going to be a reflection point at some point. It’s really hard to reflect on a season that has been when you’re in the middle of the season. But at some point, Makuro is going to have to look himself in the mirror and know that he let down a lot of Royals fans and know that he did not manage up to the best of his abilities this season. Is he a bad manager? I don’t think so. I think he’s a good manager more often than not, makes a little bit too many decisions. Um, sometimes he can micromanage things, but at times, especially last season, that worked for the Royals. They were a playoff team last season. And you can’t tell me that Marcuro was not a big reason why they made he pulled the right buttons. He pushed the right buttons. He managed a really bad bullpen last year and was able to fight tooth and nail to get that team to the postseason. But this season has been a pretty disappointing year whether it comes from a developmental standpoint, a management standpoint, a coaching standpoint. I don’t think that anybody from this Royals team this year can feel good about where they are as an organization. And that’s the most unfortunate part of this season is that we expected there to be a linear rise. The Royals will be competing for the Central this season for the Royals to take that next step. But like it is in many situations, progress is never linear. Progress is more often than not a sloopy slope. And it’s going to be really difficult at times to be able to, you know, harness what makes you great year in and year out. It’s not a linear. It’s not just a straight line. At times, it’s going to be a bit of a peak and valley. But I did not like the decision to pinch hit Randall Gridic in the uh in the ninth inning. thought it was pretty pretty stupid there to do that. But there’s a reason that I’m sitting here uh at a desk on on at 3:40 on a Thursday talking about the Royals compared to managing the Royals. So, um I I didn’t like what I saw today from the Royals offense and uh I hope to see better when we’re in September of 2026. I’ll just say that. Um everybody wants to talk about it. We’ll talk about it. Stephen Kolic, our player of the game. We’ll talk about him when we come back on the Royals Post Cast. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. 5-hour energy shots deliver tasty caffeine and 17 bold flavors. Each 2 oz shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 oouncez cup of coffee. 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It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings together your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you bu put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. You can identify that you aren’t saving as much as you thought. Monarch helps you notice an inefficient investment allocation and discover forgotten 401ks from past jobs. Don’t let financial opportunities slip through the cracks. Use code locked on mob at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on MLB. All right, let’s talk about him. Uh, I almost said Tyler Kick again. I’m a Marquette guy. Uh, let’s talk about him. Steven Kolick was absolutely nails today and he is our player of the game. This is the locked on player of the game. Absolute nails today from from Steven Kick. just did an absolutely phenomenal job for Kansas City today. I I don’t think that they could have seen what they have gotten from Steven Kick this season. I mean, he has pitched now unreal. He seven and a third innings today. Absolute per I mean almost perfection today from Steven Kolick. And now you look at him through four starts with Kansas City, three of them being on national TV. He’s got a 167 RA, 19 strikeouts to three walks. He’s not getting hit much. A 6 67 whip this season for Steven Kolick. And he was I mean I really liked what I saw from him today. I mean every single pitch. And I love pitchers that are not afraid to mix up their pitches. And today Steven Kolick was fantastic. Mitch mixing up his stuff. Let’s take a look at his Savant page because as everybody knows I’m a big Savant fan. All right. Steven Kick today. Look at this display right here. 22% sinkers, 22% fast balls, 24% change ups, mixing it up with the other stuff as well. Slider and cutter with a sweeper that’s basically a slider. I mean, the stuff was on display all day today. Got good movement with his fast ball as well. Getting good uh induced vertical break on the fast ball. The change up was good, generating eight whiffs or sorry, uh four whiffs on the change up. Getting some swing and miss as well. I know 17% isn’t a big number, but it’s better than the roy what the Royals have gotten. Uh swing and miss, out of the zone, uh 43% out of zone swing rate. That’s pretty good. They were getting a lot of swings, and that’s what makes him so good. That’s what allows him to be so good. And you see what he was able to do today. Let’s go to uh to his to his page. I mean, you look at this. It’s all down in the zone. I mean, that change up, that’s what the green is. It’s down and away to lefties, down and into righties. He was in this spot all game long today. That’s where you want him to be down in the zone. The heart of the plate was not utilized that much. Look at that circle right there. That is absolutely perfect stuff today from Steven Kolic. I I I could not imagine where the Royals would I mean I know there are people upset with Salvi with Freddy being traded um saying that it was not the right move, but the Royals got two legitimate guys that you can plug and play in the rotation next season and feel really good about yourselves going into the future. They’ve got five more years of team control. The Royals have them for those five years. I really like what uh I saw from Steven Kick today. But let’s talk about uh let’s talk about the uh the elephant in the room which is the uh the absolute stupidity that is uh the infield shift illegal shift rule. I mean what in the world? I don’t understand that. That’s such a stupid rule. This isn’t basketball where you got to measure whether their toes on the line or or tennis to make sure their toe isn’t on the line or football where you got to make sure they get two feet inbound. This is baseball. Michael Massiey’s heels are on the grass. his heels. He’s in the grass. He’s in the dirt. I don’t understand. And I honestly felt like Cal Raleigh should have left that game with a ball on his ribs. If they’re going to call that, if they’re going to challenge that, that is that’s enough to warrant a a you know, that’s enough in my opinion to warrant getting at least a tight fast ball. At least brush them off the plate a little bit. Send a message that, hey, that’s stupid. And I get it. The Mariners scored a run out of it. But the fact that they’re going to use that to prop up the to the fact that they would use that is just absolutely pathetic. I I I don’t get it. It’s it’s the stupid Manford rule. Uh everybody who follows me on Twitter knows that I dislike Rob Manford. I think he’s one of the worst commissioners in sports. He can’t get out of his own way. That was on display tonight. Just a stupid decision right there uh by the management, but whatever. it didn’t affect the Royals because the Royals couldn’t hit a ball out of where Michael Massie was standing tonight. So, um that was just atrocious. But, um the Royals lose two of three to the Mariners. Um let’s take a look. When was the last time that the Royals won a series? Uh it was against the uh the Twins on September 6th. They were 73 and 69. They were feeling pretty good about themselves in a playoff race, but now they sit pretty much dead in the water. Um they’re kind of just hoping that they can at least end the year on some positive vibes and I’m hoping that as well. But um very unfortunate that that was how it had to happen. All right, this is going to be a little bit weird. Uh no show tomorrow as you guys all know. Uh Friday night’s off limits for me. Um and then no show on Saturday. And I do apologize, but uh I want to make a trip. I’m taking a personal day from the show. I I don’t really want to watch this team for uh for for a full three hours on Saturday. I have better things that I’d like to do on a Saturday. So, I’m taking a personal day on Saturday. I’m going to go do what I need to do, but we’ll be back on Sunday. Um, so we will be back for the series finale between the Royals and the uh the Toronto Blue Jays. So, no shows the next two nights. Sorry about it. I know you guys enjoy being here and I really appreciate the feedback from you guys. But from from a, you know, elimination standpoint, it would not be surprised if Saturday rolls around and the Royals are already eliminated. So, um, I appreciate you guys for being here tonight. I appreciate you guys being here today. Uh we will see you once again on uh Sunday uh for another edition of the Royals Postc. Yeah.

Chance Liebau reacts to the series finale between the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners. We discuss another dreadful day offensively, Stephen Kolek’s performance, and the positives we can draw from the series.

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