Kansas City Royals: Observations from 2019 Opening Day

BULLPEN LIMPED TO THE FINISH LINE

When Ian Kennedy came out for the eighth inning, I figured he’d be closing out the rest of the game. Instead, even after Kennedy pitched a scoreless inning, Ned Yost opted to go with Wily Peralta in the ninth inning.

That’s where the wheels fell off for the Royals bullpen, which is NOT what fans were hoping for after watching how bad this bullpen was a year ago.

Peralta recorded one out, but allowed a hit and ended up getting two runs charged to him, giving him a 54.00 ERA after 0.1 innings pitched. Jake Diekman relieved him and didn’t fare much better, being the reason those two runs were charged to Peralta. Diekman surrendered one run and currently has a 27.00 ERA with 0.1 innings pitched.

Kevin McCarthy did not record a single out and was eventually pulled in favor of Brad Boxberger, who did his job. Boxberger came into the game in a high-pressure situation and was able to shut things down and put the game away for the Royals.

With Kennedy being a former starter, it didn’t make sense to pull him after he got through the eighth inning just fine. Instead – It took four relievers to get the Royals through the ninth inning and that’s not going to fly.