What we learned after Kansas City Royals were swept for first time in 2020

The Kansas City Royals had a rough weekend, getting swept by the White Sox and looking lousy in the process.

The 2020 Chicago White Sox are supposedly going to be like the 2013 Kansas City Royals. They believe their time is coming and they showed they can hit, taking advantage of the Royals this weekend and sweeping the series as a result.

There were some positives from this weekend, but for the most part, it was pretty ugly for the Royals. Their bullpen had been good, but got roughed up quite a bit on Saturday and Sunday (though it was only a few relievers who got hit hard) and the offense couldn’t do enough to get this team a W against their AL Central foes.

What did we learn about the Royals after they were swept for the first time this year?

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I know everyone is going to make the joke that this will be only the first of many sweeps for the Royals, but up until this series, they had been surprising people. They lost their series to Cleveland, but stole a game from them in extra innings and they tied the series with Detroit.

In this game, it was just miscue after miscue for this team. If they needed a simple play to get out of trouble, something would go awry and the White Sox would benefit from it. It was just really bad baseball.

Prior to things collapsing on Sunday, fans were excited to see Jakob Junis return to the rotation. Junis missed the first week of the season due to testing positive for COVID-19 and finally got the all-clear to rejoin his team and start a game.

Junis did well in his return, throwing 4.1 innings while allowing six hits, two runs, and striking out two. He was pulled after recording one out in the fifth and replaced by Tyler Zuber, who pitched a clean inning.

The rest of the bullpen’s day was not great and that figures since I had just written an article on how they had been surprisingly good this season. Scott Barlow, Greg Holland, and Glenn Sparkman had tough days with Barlow surrendering two runs and Holland allowing two earned runs and being charged with two others. Sparkman also gave up a run.

Something big I learned in this game (that I honestly already knew, but now know for sure) is that Sparkman’s time with this team needs to end. He’s been hit hard in the past two games and isn’t going to be a realistic part of this team’s future.

Walks were a huge issue for the Royals pitching staff on Sunday, as they walked six batters, which proved costly. That’s not going to cut it if this team wants to win games.

The Kansas City Royals offense continued to do very little.

Alex Gordon hit his first home run of the season and Nicky Lopez had a big hit that initially tied the game at two runs a piece, but that would be it for this Royals offense. They’ve been really bad in 2020 and it’s hard to see this team winning many games if the offense continues to be this putrid.

Fans have learned a lot about this team ten games into the 2020 season and a lot of what we’ve learned has been negative unfortunately.

Next up, the 3-7 Kansas City Royals are hitting the road again so soon after their home opener, this time heading to Wrigley Field for a three-game series with the 7-2 Cubs. If nothing else, fans can enjoy the scenery during that series.

Ten games down, 50 to go!