Game of the Week: June 19: BOS @ KC

[Commissioner Erick]

Boston Red Sox (38-32) @ Kansas City Royals (26-44)


BOS: Jose Quintana (4-6, 3.84)
KC: Dan Straily (2-6, 4.86)


It's been an absolute disaster of a season for the Kansas City Royals.

They came into the year with a roster that David Glass Jr. couldn't afford. The team was competitive and entering free agency, so the hope was to give the players and fans one last run for the playoffs. Instead, the Royals weren't making money, the team wasn't winning games, and the team had to give up Kelvin Herrera and Ian Kennedy to cut costs.

Now the team sits at 26-44, last in the American League. The team has veterans who would be welcome additions to other teams, but thus far, few teams have been willing to take the guys on. As a result, Kansas City has been stuck with an older roster of players that won't be together next year, with a farm system that's about a year away from producing a crop that's ready to fake it in the big leagues. Fortunately for this year it's a good group of guys, so things aren't falling apart in the clubhouse. Still, it's the beginning of a rebuilding job that may take some time to bear fruit.

Manager Justin Jones can take solace that it's unlikely all his veterans will struggle at once. Alex Gordon is hitting .226 with a .712 OPS. Eric Hosmer has a .639 OPS in 261 plate appearances. Sal Perez has a .566 OPS and a -0.3 WAR. There have been some injuries, but it must be disappointing seeing the team struggle on the backs of veterans underperforming so severely.

Kansas City's opponent is the Boston Red Sox, a team that still has postseason hopes. Boston is part of a pack of American League East teams within three games of each other. Boston is fourth in the group, but at 38-32, they're two games out of the AL East lead, and a game behind Toronto for the second Wild Card.

The Red Sox have stayed alive in the division behind some unlikely outfield contributors, Bryce Brentz and Rusney Castillo. OSA thinks very little of Castillo, but he has a .272 average and seven home runs in 130 plate appearances. Castillo's also played a very good outfield, really providing strong play in a pinch. Brentz was called up when Jackie Bradley Jr. went on the disabled list. In just 38 plate appearances, Brentz is hitting .353 with two doubles and two home runs. He had four hits, including two doubles and a home run on Thursday in a 9-0 win over the Phillies.

Those players have helped Boston go 9-4 over the last 13 games. Mookie Betts, Dustin Pedroia, and Chris Young are coming back off the disabled list soon. If the team makes the playoffs or wins the division by a narrow margin, those two players should be celebrated as key reasons why.

Boston's also succeeded thanks to a spectacular season from Jose Ramirez so far. Ramirez came over in a deal with Cleveland this offseason and has done nothing but hit. Ramirez has hit .345 with eight home runs and 10 steals. Boston has been surprisingly light on power, 11th in the league, but are 6th in runs scored. Ramirez' .393 on-base percentage has been a huge reason why.

It'll be fun seeing if Boston's unexpectedly good performers continue to play well against Kansas City, or if the Royals' underperforming veterans can snap out of it against the Red Sox.


Questions for the GM's:


For Keegan Mackinnon, you have a bunch of players coming off the DL shortly. What will be your plans for Betts, Pedroia, and Chris Young?

Rusney Castillo is playing very well for you. Has he played himself into more at bats, or is he simply playing as an emergency starter right now.

Mitch Moreland has been worth -0.8 WAR. Do you continue playing him until he snaps out of this, or is it time to move on?

For Justin Jones, you have so many veterans on the block. Can you give up an update on those players?

Most scouts believe Raul Mondesi isn't ready for the majors right now, but he's played very well this year. Are you going to have him be your shortstop from here on out?

Today's starter, Dan Straily, was acquired in the offseason. How does he fit into what you want to do moving forward?

[kcroyals]

Earlier we trade Lorenzo Cain for a couple of prospects as we look to continue rebuilding. We think these guys can be great once they make it up here. Unfortunately we were unable to get to a hot enough start to keep some guys around and compete this year but looking forward there is a lot to get excited about with some of the younger guys as they take the next step to the PBA.

The plan this year was to have Escobar start at SS all year and have Mondesi work in the minors to continue to develop. Escobar's injury forced us to bring Mondesi up to play short. We felt at the time he was our best option to play there everyday. Right now he is doing what we hoped he would be able to do next year. When Escobar returns next week we are going to be in an interesting situation but its a good problem to have.

When we traded for Straily our goal was to improve our rotation and we think he will be a key piece for the future as we start to rebuild. We hope in years to come he will be a key to the rotation.

[keeganredsox]

With a few players coming off the DL, I will be looking to work Betts and Pedoria right back into the line up. As for Chris Young he will be going down on a rehab assignment. I'm very please with how Rusney has been playing he went from an emergency starter to someone who could be making more regular appearances for the club. Even with the -0.8WAR I still have faith that Moreland can snap out of this and turn this around, he is going to be given the chance to show he can fix what ever is wrong.

[Commissioner Erick]

Red Sox 9 Royals 2

WP: J. Quintana (5-6)
LP: D. Straily (2-7)
SV: N. Jones (2)


Dan Straily kept the Kansas City Royals in the game for 7 innings. The Royals still lost by seven runs. It's just been one of those years.

Jose Quintana worked 7.2 sparkling innings, Kansas City hit one extra base hit, and the Boston Red Sox scored seven in the ninth to pull away from Kansas City 9-2.

The Red Sox won using the same formula they've used much of this season. Good starting pitching, and contributions from unlikely offensive sources.

Bryce Brentz continued his magical year. He had two hits, scored two runs, and clubbed a three run home run in the ninth inning. He's now hitting .359 for the season. Marco Hernandez picked up just his third start of the season, this time in right field. He had two hits, drove in two runs, and despite minimal experience in right, made both his chances in the outfield.

Meanwhile, Jose Quintana cruised. He allowed just two runs on five hits, striking out 7 and walking nobody. It helped that he was staked to an early lead. With two outs, Brentz singled, followed by a hit from Hanley Ramirez. Marco Hernandez doubled in two, before Xander Bogaerts drove him in with a run. Before Quintana touched the mound, it was 3-0 Boston.

Kansas City tried to regroup in the bottom of the first. Lorenzo Cain singled, stole second, and moved to third on a Cheslor Cuthbert infield hit with one out. Instead of getting a man in from third, Salvador Perez popped up on the infield and Alex Gordon flew out to end the threat.

Straily settled in from there, not allowing another hit until the sixth inning, when he struck out Ramirez and Hernandez with a man in scoring position to keep the Red Sox at bay. In fact, Straily worked 7 innings, allowing three runs on five hits. Only one of those hits came after the first though. He walked one and struck out 8.

Kansas City just couldn't get either a big hit or a timely hit. Raul Mondesi Jr. singled and stole second with two outs in the second. Ryan O'Hearn struck out on three pitches to strand him. That started a string of 12 men in a row set down by Quintana, a string that was only broken by a Bogaerts error in the sixth. Quintana responded by simply retiring six more in a row. That meant he went 6 innings without allowing a walk or hit.

He ran into trouble with two outs in the eighth though. Cain singled, Whit Merrifield singled, and Cuthbert doubled them both in to make it 3-2 Boston. Nate Jones relieved Quintana and got Oerez to ground out to second base on a 2-0 pitch, ending the threat.

Boston got five hits, including four for extra bases, plus a walk in the ninth inning, pushing home six runs to blow the game open. All the runs were charged to Joakim Soria, who saw his ERA balloon to 6.37 in the aftermath. Jones closed the game out for his second save.


Questions for the GM's:


For Keegan Mackinnon, you went another day without Mookie Betts and the rest of the players presumed healthy but on the DL. When will we see these guys?

Moreland went 0-4 with a pair of strikeouts. How long can you go seeing him underperform like this?

Jose Quintana has been great at home, but really struggled on the road coming into this start. How encouraging was it to see him pitch so well?

For Justin Jones, Cheslor Cuthbert has been a nice surprise. He had two hits and a pair of RBI's. Where does he fit in your team's pecking order moving forward?

Salvadar Perez really let you down with runners in scoring position. He's down to .188 on the year in batting average. Do you think about making a change?

You had the left-handed Ryan O'Hearn in the lineup against Quintana. What prompted that?

[kcroyals]

Cheslor Cuthbert has been good this year but it is no surprise to us. Earlier this year Mike Moustakas was not playing well and we started playing Cuthbert more. With the injury Cuthbert has stepped up as he has in the past with other injuries Moustakas has had. Going forward he looks like he has the starting job if we cannot get a deal done with Moustakas.

Salvador Perez hasn't been playing as well as we have hoped. We may consider Drew Butera playing a bit more but with as bad of a season Salvy is having he still leads the team in RBI's. When he does make a hit it matters.

Ryan O'Hearn is a good player. We are experimenting with him trying to figure out where he fits best for us. Starting him against Quintanna may not have been my best moment.

[keeganredsox]

The guys on the DL will be back into the lineup for the upcoming games, the team had been playing well so the decision was made to give them a few extra days rest.
After that performance Moreland has been told that he needs to shape up or he will be be on the bench until he does.

It was fantastic seeing Quintana pitch well, we are hopeful that he will be able to transfer the success he has been having at home to his away games.