What we learned after the Kansas City Royals won a pitcher’s duel
The Kansas City Royals scored just two runs on Monday night, but that was all they needed to beat Cleveland.
Brad Keller vs Shane Bieber provided us with quite the pitcher’s duel, as Bieber held the Kansas City Royals to just one hit through the first six innings while striking out nine, but walking four batters. Keller was locked in too, but was initially on the losing side of things, allowing one run through 6.1 innings.
Thankfully for Keller, his offense picked him up, knocking in both of their runs in the eighth inning. The tying run came as a result of Maikel Franco’s single that allowed Hunter Dozier to cross home plate.
The game-winning run came via Bubba Starling (you read that right) whose single got Jorge Soler home. Starling’s last plate appearance prior to this game was on August 23rd, so his ability to get the job done there was impressive.
Not only were the starting pitchers dominant in this game, but the bullpen was excellent as well.
When looking at the stats from Monday night’s game, no pitcher who pitched had an ERA over three, with the highest actually being Greg Holland‘s 2.84 ERA. It was an impressive effort by everyone who took the mound Monday night, but fortunately, Karinchak surrendered both Royals runs in the eighth inning, allowing the boys in blue to get their 14th win of the season.
The Kansas City Royals showed their pitching is strong with this win.
Brad Keller is having quite the season, as his ERA is sitting at 1.93. He’s been fantastic for the Royals this year and it’d have been a shame if he had to take the loss for this one. Fortunately, Starling made sure that didn’t happen.
Jesse Hahn, Scott Barlow, and Holland all combined for zero runs allowed through the final 2.2 innings pitched and this bullpen proved it can still be top notch even without Trevor Rosenthal, who was traded over the weekend.
While the offense wasn’t great, the Indians have a tremendous pitching staff and this Royals offense didn’t cave. While they only managed just one hit off of Bieber, they were able to get his pitch count up and earned four walks against him. That, in turn, got him out of the game quicker and as a result, the Royals got to the Indians bullpen and the rest is history.
This was an impressive win for the Kansas City Royals and they’ve continued to play competitive games this season despite many counting them out time and time again.
Thirty-five games down, 25 to go!