Kansas City Royals: Ian Kennedy looking sharp after first two starts
The Kansas City Royals got win number two on Saturday and a large part of what got them that second win was the dominant pitching performance of one Ian Kennedy. Kennedy has been lights out so far.
When Ian Kennedy closed out the sixth inning and didn’t allow a single run against the Cleveland Indians, the feeling amongst Kansas City Royals fans was that the poor guy was going to pitch another gem and not be rewarded for his efforts. Fortunately, not long after, Lucas Duda took Trevor Bauer deep and put the Royals ahead 1-0. That’d be the final score of the game.
Kennedy got his first win of the 2018 season and it was well-deserved. It’s been great seeing him get off to such a hot start (especially considering what he’s earning). For the record, the highest paid pitcher on the Royals staff has started two games so far pitching 12 innings while allowing eight hits, one run, and two walks with 13 strikeouts.
Simply put – Ian Kennedy has been incredible. He has an ERA of 0.75 and a WHIP of 0.83 in his two starts thus far and has a 1-0 record. Unfortunately for Kennedy, his team hasn’t helped him out much.
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In his first start of the year, the bullpen let him down. In the second start, his offense gave him zero cushion until he was out of the game (but he still got the win, so that’s good).
Kennedy gave up just four hits against Cleveland and was locked in through his six innings of work. He did get into some trouble in that final inning, but was able to get out of the jam without any damage.
One of the biggest questions heading into this year was if Kennedy would be able to have a bounce back season and so far, he clearly is proving that last year was just a bad year. Sure, we’re just two games in, but Ian Kennedy looks like the guy that the Kansas City Royals paid $70 million for.
If nothing else positive happens for the Royals this season, Ian Kennedy performing like an ace would be a wonderful thing to occur. They do have him through 2021 after all and at the very least, maybe, JUST MAYBE, a team would be willing to trade for him at the deadline and get that salary off the Royals’ books.
Now if only the Royals offense would actually start putting up runs on the board and the bullpen could hold leads (which they’ve been better at recently), just imagine what kind of year Ian Kennedy could have. Is that too much to ask for?