Royals not concerned about India (right quad tightness) despite early exit

CLEVELAND -- With the Royals mired in an offensive slump, watching Jonathan India labor around the bases and eventually leave Saturday’s game because of right quad tightness wasn’t a sight many wanted to see.

At least on the injury front, the Royals seem to have avoided the worst-case scenario, with India optimistic that the quad tightness is a day-to-day injury and not something that will keep him down for long.

The offensive problems, however, persisted in the Royals’ 6-3 loss to the Guardians on Saturday at Progressive Field, with Kansas City now looking to avoid a sweep in Sunday’s series finale.

India said he’s been dealing with some tightness the past few days -- the cold weather in Cleveland certainly hasn’t helped -- and felt another aggravation when he ran from first to third base on Vinnie Pasquantino’s single in the sixth inning.

At that point, India knew he needed to get out of the game, fearing that anything more would lead to more missed time than a day or two. Known for being a gamer who doesn’t like to sit out, India said this might have been the first time he was preemptive about an injury rather than just playing through it.

“I knew that if I didn’t do something about it right there, who knows -- if I got up again, hit a double, it probably would have went,” India said. “So it’s probably the first time in my career that I was smart enough to not blow something out of my body. I’ve got to take the positive out of that.”

India said he felt OK postgame, but he and the Royals will re-evaluate his quad Sunday morning before the series finale. A day off might not hurt with the Royals in the middle of a 17-game stretch and India having played every game this season so far.

“I’m pretty optimistic that I’ll be healthy [Sunday],” India said. “I don’t know if they’ll let me play. But at least to be available, come off the bench if they need me. But it feels OK.”

“He wasn’t free [when he was] running -- just looked a little labored,” added manager Matt Quatraro, who met India on the field as he walked off when the sixth inning ended. “So he actually, to his credit, went to [third-base coach] Vance [Wilson] before I got out there. He said it was too tight.”

And the Royals wouldn’t want to lose their leadoff hitter for an extended period of time. While India is only hitting .208 with three extra-base hits in 15 games this season, his on-base percentage is .333.

That’s what the Royals have needed in their lineup and at the leadoff spot, especially. The Royals’ .270 on-base percentage at the top of the lineup in 2024 was precisely why they acquired India, who has a career .352 on-base percentage, in a trade with the Reds this past offseason.

The lineup would look a lot more dire without him, even with the offensive slump the Royals find themselves in right now. After Saturday, Kansas City has scored three runs or fewer in nine of its 15 games this year and has scored just 11 runs in its past six games.

On Saturday, the Royals' offense struck out 15 times -- 10 against Guardians starter Luis L. Ortiz. Pasquantino’s homer off Ortiz in the fourth was the Royals’ only run until they scored two against Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase and had the tying run at the plate in MJ Melendez, whose 0-for-4 night dropped his batting average down to .086 this season.

“[Ortiz] was spotting up his fastball, he had two fastballs going, he had his high cutter going,” India said. “I mean, he was spotting up. And hey, [the Guardians are] pitching well this series. They’ve always had good pitching. It’s just us getting back into it.”

Royals starter Michael Lorenzen allowed three earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, and it was a close enough game that Quatraro had Lucas Erceg warming up in the top of the eighth inning to enter if the Royals had tied it.

When they went down in order, reliever Sam Long got the eighth inning and gave up three runs (two earned).

“We’ve got to do a better job at being stubborn at the plate and not give anything away and just being better,” Pasquantino said pregame, before he went 3-for-4. “Our pitchers have been really, really good. You would hope with a starting ERA of under 3.00 [2.92] that you’d be better than .500 right now. That’s on us as an offense to pick them up. Because they’ve been picking us up. We need to figure out ways to score more runs.”