What we learned after Matt Harvey’s Kansas City Royals debut
Matt Harvey pitched for the Kansas City Royals in the second game of the doubleheader. What did we learn in this 5-0 loss?
Well, Matt Harvey had a good first two innings on the mound for the Kansas City Royals when they took on his old team in the second game of a Wednesday doubleheader. Unfortunately, Harvey got lit up in the third inning and was ultimately pulled after three innings of work.
Harvey started the game allowing a single, but then proceeded to strike out two of the next three batters and got out of the inning. In his second inning, he walked the first batter and then set the next three batters down in order.
It was the third inning that proved troublesome for Harvey, but it started out promising, as he got the first two outs before running into trouble. Harvey then allowed a single and a home run promptly after, making it 2-0 Reds. He allowed another homer after that, putting the Royals in a 3-0 hole.
After walking another batter, Harvey was able to record the final out of the inning with the next batter and got out of the inning. He did not return for the fourth inning, but there was both good and bad with this performance.
The Kansas City Royals know Matt Harvey isn’t what he used to be.
No one is expecting him to be that 2015 pitcher again, that’s not why he was brought in. Harvey is on the last leg of his career and the Royals need veteran pitchers after Mike Montgomery and Jakob Junis have both landed on the injured list.
Harvey’s final stat line for his Royals debut was three runs off of four hits, two walks, and four strikeouts through three innings, now good for a 9.00 ERA. There was some good in his performance despite the high ERA and the Royals were able to turn to the bullpen after just three innings due to Brad Keller‘s dominant start earlier in the day.
Once Junis returns, Harvey probably won’t remain in the rotation, so this will be a short-term thing.
The bullpen gave up two more runs, giving us the 5-0 final.
Greg Holland and Gabe Speier gave up the two runs. Holland has been a little shakier lately, but his ERA is still decent, hovering at 3.65 while Speier’s is at 7.94.
Jesse Hahn made his 2020 debut, however, and pitched a scoreless fourth inning, so that was good to see. Josh Staumont pitched 0.2 innings and both of his outs were strikeouts. He now has a sparkling 0.87 ERA and is already turning into a star.
Lastly, Jake Newberry pitched the seventh inning and got his ERA down to 3.00. He’s been sneaky good this year too.
After scoring four runs earlier in the day, the Kansas City Royals laid an egg in game two.
Trevor Bauer steamrolled this team on Wednesday night, pitching all seven innings in under 100 pitches. Adalberto Mondesi had the team’s only hit and it came in the fifth inning. Bauer was that close to having a no hitter (though it probably wouldn’t have counted since it’d have only been through seven innings).
It was a bad night for the Royals offense, but they were able to muster up four runs in game one, so maybe they were just worn out from playing earlier. Who knows?
Twenty-five games down, 35 to go!