KC Royals: Deeper look at the offense and pitching from Opening Day win
By Cody Rickman
Pitching Notes from KC Royals Opening Day
Outside of the performances of Kyle Zimmer, Scott Barlow, and Wade Davis, the pitching staff struggled in the season opener giving up 15 hits, nine walks, one hit batter, and 10 runs. The Royals used seven pitchers in total to get through Opening Day.
Royals pitchers threw a stunning 202 pitches in order to complete the game. This is not a sustainable way to win ball games at the major league level.
Pitching staffs across MLB may struggle the first month of the season with the new baseball that is being used. Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur over at The Ringer broke down how the new baseball introduced for the 2021 season designed to create more drag may result in more walks, strikeouts, and home runs.
From my observation of the Royals pitchers, they appeared to have more movement on their two-seamers/sinkers, their off-speed offerings, and breaking pitches. It will take some time for pitchers to adjust their stuff to land in the strike-zone when they attempting to locate it as their typical movement has changed.
The Royals walked nine and hit another batter, but they also struck out 16. The ball was really moving well, so hopefully, the Royals pitching staff can adjust to the new ball quickly.
Teams with more patient approaches will have the advantage for the first month of the 2021 season and those who tend to chase aggressively will rack up the strikeouts. Waiting on a four-seamer in the zone would really behoove hitters early this season as the exit velocities on the new ball seem to project for even more home runs.