First Day at the K (This Year)

Some takeaways from my first game of the year.

It doesn’t look like it in the pic, but I swear my middle son was having a good time.

I finally made it out to Kauffman Stadium yesterday for my first game of the season. In what has been a surprisingly entertaining and successful campaign to date, my personal experience got off to a somewhat inauspicious start.

First off, I somehow got it into my head the Royals were doing their three-part HDH bobblehead giveaway against the Rangers this weekend, when that promotion is, in fact, scheduled for the Oakland series, May 17-19. Yesterday was Boy Scout Day.

No one in my family was particularly surprised by this screw-up. I have a knack for messing up ticket orders. I once meant to order Friday night tickets to The Lion King (the touring Broadway show) for my wife’s birthday, and we ended up at a Thursday matinee. Most famously, at least in my house, I meant to order tickets to see the Royals play the Astros on Thursday, June 8, 2017. It was for my birthday, which was the following day, but I ended up getting the family tickets to the Tuesday, June 6 game instead. Luckily, that one worked out. The Royals walked off a comeback win in what is still the greatest game I’ve ever seen at the stadium.

I like to think I’m detail-oriented and pretty dependable in most aspects of my life, but I always seem to choke when it comes to ordering tickets. Fortunately, no one in my family is a major collector, so this mistake wasn’t held against me. I’m not a major collector either, but I’ve accumulated a few bobbleheads, and I’ll admit I was a little disappointed not to go home with a Greg Holland figurine.

Then we entered a rain delay before the game even started. I’ve been lucky when it comes to baseball and weather. This was the first rain delay I’ve attended in 26 years. The last one came against the Brewers in 1998, and a few of my killjoy friends convinced my cousin Scott and I to leave early. After an hour-and-a-half delay, that game turned into a back-and-forth 15-inning minor classic. Needless to say, I promised I’d never leave early again.

I’ve followed through on that. In fact, I’ve never understood fans who want to leave early, whether it’s to beat traffic or whatever. My dad was one of those guys when I was a kid, and I always fought him on it (and usually won). I wasn’t even the one paying for the tickets back then, but I knew I wanted to get my money’s worth. But it was more than that. The ballpark is one of my happy places. I go there to relax and have fun. So why would I be in a hurry to leave, especially when traffic is probably going to suck no matter when you leave?

Thankfully, my dad has moved past this inclination in recent years, perhaps because I generally do most of the ballpark driving now, and my family knows better than to even suggest sneaking out early. The game started an hour-and-twenty-minutes late, and though the rain briefly reappeared a couple of times, it was never enough of a downpour to make the situation miserable.

The game, on the other hand, was very enjoyable for about eight innings. I witnessed my first in-person Bobby Witt Jr. triple and it was every bit as exciting as I imagined it would be. He added a double in his second at-bat, and he was knocked home by Vinnie Pasquantino on both occasions — the Pasquatch notched his own double for the latter RBI. I thought there was a realistic chance we might see a BWJ cycle, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Not everything the Royals did was rosy, however. It’s difficult to criticize Salvador Perez this season, as he is having a monster year all around. He’s even shown much improved plate discipline, but anyone who’s watched him throughout his career knows Salvy is a free swinger, and the downside of that approach reared its ugly head yesterday. Perez went 0-4 with three strikeouts.

Maikel Garcia put up the same line with an extra at-bat. Garcia has been electric at times this season, and he’s given me real reason to believe he might not only be an everyday third baseman for this organization moving forward, but he could also be a true impact player. He needs to develop some consistency though. He’s been remarkably streaky so far in 2024, and when he’s off, like he was yesterday, it’s ugly.

Garcia, at least, has had his highlights. For the bottom of the Royals’ order, it’s been rough sledding. MJ Melendez, another streaky player with a profile similar to Garcia, showed signs of breaking out of an awful slump with two hits, including a double. Unfortunately, he was stranded on base both times, because the guys hitting behind him couldn’t do anything.

Kevin O’Brien at The Royals Reporter wrote a nice in-depth piece about the Royals outfield struggles and how they might attempt to fix it. It’s still early and the club is winning, so I’m not going to hit the panic button yet. But the lineup has way too many guys hitting at or below the Mendoza line for this to be sustainable. Eventually, it’s going to bite them, and yesterday is proof it already has.

On the bright side, Daniel Lynch IV looked great in a spot start for the rehabbing Alec Marsh. My expectations for Lynch were low — he’s gone from being a guy we all thought might be our Chris Sale to an afterthought — but he mowed his way through the reigning champs, even striking out Corey Seager twice. He looked like he was going to cover up the shortcomings of the bats, something the rotation has done consistently this season.

The bullpen stumbled a little, but it wasn’t a major failure. John Schreiber and James McArthur have been brilliant on the back end, but each of them gave up a run to the Rangers. The latter came on a Jonah Heim shot down the right field line that hit the foul pole. A few inches to the right, and the Royals probably close this one out. But those kinds of things are going to happen, even to great relievers.

The real killer came in the bottom of the eighth, when the Royals’ old nemesis — hitting with runners in scoring position — struck again. Pasquantino walked, and Dairon Blanco came in to pinch-run. Blanco has been amazing as a late-game baserunner this season, and he promptly swiped second and third. Leading 2-1, the Royals had a runner on third with one out and a golden opportunity to add an insurance run.

Instead, Salvy struck out swinging again, and Massey popped out in foul territory. An absolutely atrocious display of situational hitting. On the day, the Royals went 1-10 with RISP. That failure came back to bite them when Heim’s dinger tied it in the ninth. In the tenth, the Rangers were able to bring their Manfred runner around to score while the Royals flailed away, leaving two runners on base — including Witt, who was intentionally walked — when Nelson Velasquez struck out to end the game.

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Thanks for reading Powder Blue Nostalgia. How is your season going so far? Have you made it out to your local ballpark yet? How was the experience? If you haven’t made it out yet, do you plan to? What are you most looking forward to?