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Kansas City Royals News: Rough start to the season and awful bullpen

By Leigh Oleszczak

TORONTO, ON - APRIL 17: Kevin McCarthy #61 of the Kansas City Royals exits the game as he is relieved by manager Ned Yost #3 in the ninth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on April 17, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 17: Kevin McCarthy #61 of the Kansas City Royals exits the game as he is relieved by manager Ned Yost #3 in the ninth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on April 17, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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Kansas City Royals news is all about how bad the team is and that goes hand in hand with the bullpen, which has been horrendous.

There hasn’t been much to praise when it comes to the Kansas City Royals, who are off to a 3-13 start in 2018. While the offense hasn’t been stellar and starting pitching has started to come back down to Earth, the bullpen is the reason why the Royals have only won three games thus far. They can’t hold a lead to save anyone’s life.

The average ERA for the Royals bullpen is an ugly 7.94 and only four pitchers have an ERA under four. Brandon Maurer was optioned to Triple-A and it probably won’t be long before the team parts ways with Blaine Boyer and Justin Grimm too. Neither have been any help at all.

The rest of the Royals aren’t playing well either though and it’s pretty much a known fact that if the Royals get down by too many runs within the first few innings that the game is done. There’s just not enough impact players offensively to help put the boys in blue over the top.

In fact, had Dayton Moore not re-signed Mike Moustakas and brought in Lucas Duda and Jon Jay, a real argument could be made that the Royals might still be winless at this point. That might seem extreme, but the offense without those three guys is bad, the bullpen can’t hold leads, and the starters can’t get past six innings. It’s going to be a long season, folks.

Here’s what’s trending in Kansas City Royals news from throughout FanSided.

What a beautiful mess Royals fans are in [Mitchell Wittman, KC Kingdom]

"The team still has not won a game when the other team scores a run. That’s right. The only three wins the Royals have managed to scrape together have all been shutouts."

Kansas City Royals letting their starting rotation down [David Hill, Call to the Pen]

More from Kansas City Royals

"Heading into the start of the 2018 season, there were plenty of questions about the Royals roster. However, it was expected that they would score their fair share of runs, and have a relatively decent bullpen."

Royals have too many weaknesses to compete [Joel Wagler, KC Kingdom]

"There just isn’t enough positives to overcome the plethora of negatives. Not even Perez will be able to make a significant difference, though adding his power will be a plus."

Check out other Kansas City Royals news articles from around the rest of the web.

These numbers show just how much this Royals bullpen stinks [Max Rieper, Royals Review]

For the Royals bullpen, sorry isn’t the hardest word [Craig Brown, Baseball Prospectus]

Obviously the Royals won’t go the rest of the year without winning a game. There will be winning streaks to be had, but right now, the Royals have to get out of their current losing streak, which dates back to their series against the Mariners over a week ago.

It hasn’t been fun watching the Royals so far this season and at this point, the most excitement fans might have could be at the trade deadline… in three months. It’ll be a long season, yes, but hopefully in three or four years, this will all be worth it. We’ve been through much worse before, friends.

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