Royals reach new level of futility vs. Yankees that didn’t seem imaginable

The Kansas City Royals are right back on the losing train, squandering any momentum they gained from their series win over the Seattle Mariners over the weekend, after blowing a lead in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees on Monday. The Royals have now lost 13 of their last 18 games and have not had a winning streak exceeding two games since their five win stretch from May 1-5.

While losing’s bad in it’s own right, it’s how their losing now that’s particularly frustrating. If Royals fans thought their walk-off loss to the Braves at the start of season thanks to walk-off grand slam from fringe major leaguer Dominic Smith was bad, how about a ninth inning blown save at the hands of perennial underperformer Anthony Volpe.

With Erceg coming to the mound to right the wrongs of the night before, where he surrendered three runs and made the Royals 8-6 victory look a lot closer than it actually was, the hope was that he’d prove that outing was merely a hiccup. However, the opposite was proved here after Volpe hit a two-run single off him to put the Royals behind the eight-ball in the final frame and eventually back in the losing column.

“You can call it bad luck, you can call it whatever you want, but we lost today,” Erceg said postgame to media.

“This game’s hard, I don’t want to make it harder,” he said. “Going to try and absorb the last two and keep simplifying things, just trying to get ahead of guys. Maybe make a better two-strike pitch to Volpe there.”

For context, Volpe has looked relatively strong in his nine games this season since returning to the Yankees mid-way through the month. However, the once former prized prospect had never posted an OPS higher than .666 or wRC+ above 87 in his three prior big league seasons. Pair that with the fact that he spent time in the minors beyond his rehab assignment this season and he’s not exactly the caliber of name to feel good about losing to.

Lucas Erceg might be forcing Royals to re-evaluate closer’s role once again

For the most part this season, Erceg has stepped into the closer’s role for the injured and concerningly underperforming Carlos Estévez this season, a role in which he held for them after they acquired him at the 2024 MLB trade deadline. However he’s had his blips in form throughout the season.

The first came early after giving up four hits and four earned runs across back-to-back outings on April 16 and then April 20. He’d then clean up his act and settle in very nicely for the next month before May 14. Since then though, in his last five outings, Erceg is throwing to a 10.80 ERA, 2.60 WHIP and .460 BAA with a pair of blown saves.

For the season now, despite holding a top five saves total in the American League, Erceg is sporting a 5.06 ERA, 1.69 WHIP and .288 BAA in 22 outings.

While the Royals aren’t abundantly robust when it comes to relief depth this season, they do have the benefit of having one of the more underrated bullpen arms in baseball this season with Daniel Lynch IV. The lefty southpaw is proving that he’s ready for more high-leverage innings, as he’s sporting a mesmerizing 1.59 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and .159 BAA across 22 relief appearances.

Erceg has been nothing if not a worthy steward to this bullpen since arriving in Kansas City. However, at 10 games under .500 with the preseason contending ambitions the Royals had, the margins for error are as narrow as ever. They can’t really afford to let players figure it out anymore now that the season is days away from entering June. So, perhaps a difficult switch needs to happen in the closer’s role.