Royals climb in the Wild Card standings with 4-3 win over Rangers

On the Kansas City Royals’ last Monday night home game of the year, the team conquered the Texas Rangers in what ended up as a close 4-3 contest. Carlos Estevez set a career high with his 32nd save to secure the game.

The Royals struck first despite a couple of bloop hits given up by Michael Wacha in the top of the first inning as neither came around to score. Mike Yastrzemski, leading off against a right-handed pitcher, hit a beautiful line drive home run. It was Yas’ third leadoff home run of the month, matching a Royals record.

Wacha gave the lead right back in the second inning. Three Rangers hit singles, with Jonah Heim’s single scoring Marcus Semien. Fortunately, Wacha coaxed a couple of fly balls, and Josh Smith’s fly ball was too shallow in right field for Joc Pederson to cleanly tag and score from third. John Rave unleashed a very nice throw to the plate. It was a close play and went under review, but the double play stood: Pederson was out at home.

Fortunately, the Royals didn’t have to wait too long to grab the lead again, a lead which they would not relinquish. In the third inning, Bobby Witt Jr. drew his second walk of the game. Vinnie Pasquantino then sent a laser beam of a home run just over the right field wall for a two-run shot.

The Royals chased Rangers starter Luis Curvelo from the game in the fourth inning after a pair of singles by Kyle Isbel and Yastrzemski, and while they didn’t score, forcing the starting pitcher out after 3 ?
? innings in the first game of a four-game series is always a nice move.

They did score once more, though. Maikel Garcia, who had a couple of really excellent plays at third base on the defensive side, contributed offensively with a home run of his own to give the Royals a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning. It was not exactly the longest fly ball, as it only went 352 feet. But Garcia was able to will it fair and it curled just around the left field foul pole.

Wacha was overall quite good, and he lasted 5 ?
? innings. After the game, Wacha admitted that he didn’t like giving up so many hits–the Rangers ended up with 11 total on the night, most of which were on Wacha’s dime–but he was able to get key plays when he needed. Before being replaced by John Schreiber, Wacha got one of those balls in the form of a bouncing grounder right up the middle from Rowdy Tellez, owner of one of the best names in baseball. It came so close to bouncing off the second base bag and causing so many problems, but it didn’t and Witt executed the tag and throw.

A game of inches, it is. Evan Carter kicked Wacha out of the contest with an RBI single to make it 4-2, but Wacha would get the win.

The Rangers (and the Royals) made it interesting in the eighth inning. Tyler Tolbert came into left field as a defensive replacement, sending Adam Frazier to second base. I was curious why Tolbert didn’t just come into second base, and I asked Matt Quatraro this after the game–Q said that it had to do with putting Tolbert’s spot in the lineup as far away as possible, and that would have obviously been a factor if the Rangers had tied it up.

Corey Seager, of course, tested Tolbert’s defense right off the bat against reliever Lucas Erceg. Seager sent a line drive double to left field and Tolbert stumbled en route to the ball. I’m not sure if Tolbert could have gotten it; maybe he could have, but it seemed out of reach. Tellez’s groundout scored Wyatt Langford, who had moved to third on the previous play. But Erceg got out of it with just one run allowed.

Tonight’s Estevez appearance was, thankfully, stress-free. A one-two-three ninth inning came and went, with the Royals emerging victorious with a slim 4-3 lead. After the game, Estevez was effusive about the team’s attitude. “The way we’re fighting every game, that’s good,” he said. Shortly thereafter, he quipped something that could have been said about the last few Royals playoff squads: “It’s never done for us right now.”

The Royals stand at 64-61, three games above .500 for the first time since June 5. Pending the Cleveland Guardians game, which is in the sixth inning as I type this, the Royals made up some solid ground:

Kansas City remains a longshot to make the playoffs. But they have finally started to go on the run that they need to make it a race in September.