Resilient Royals remain confident after 'uncharacteristic' Game 1

NEW YORK -- More than anything this season, and especially over the last month, the Royals’ strength has been its pitching. Strike-throwing, aggressiveness and limiting damage has been what the pitching staff has prided itself on during the most important time of the year.

But in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday night in the Bronx, the Royals issued eight walks and pitched an “uncharacteristic” game, in manager Matt Quatraro’s words, during their 6-5 loss to the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

Saturday was a wacky back-and-forth affair that made history with five lead changes, the most ever in a postseason game. As resilient as the Royals were Saturday night, the Yankees matched it, in part because the Royals could not execute.

“We pride ourselves on making them earn their way on base,” starter Michael Wacha said, “and we didn’t do that. We’ve got to get them back in the zone and fill it up and make quality pitches in the zone."

To be clear, the Royals did not lose Saturday only because of the pitching. There were missed opportunities. Their stars -- Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez -- went 1-for-14 combined. There were questionable strike-zone calls. There was even a disputed replay review, when Jazz Chisholm stole second in the seventh inning but seemed out on second baseman Michael Massey’s tag. After a lengthy review, the safe call stood.

Moments later, Chisholm scored the winning run on Alex Verdugo’s RBI single.

“We had plenty of plays to make that we didn’t,” Massey said. “I had an opportunity to drive in a run and I didn’t. Plenty of things we could have done. You never lose the game based on one play. It’s always a collection of plays. But certainly frustrating.”

And now the Royals are playing from behind. In all best-of-five postseason series, the team that wins Game 1 has gone on to take the series 109 of 152 times (72%). In Division Series under the current 2-2-1 format, teams winning Game 1 at home have advanced 37 of 51 times (73%).

The good news: They’ve got their ace, Cole Ragans, on the mound for Game 2 on Monday. And if the Royals have shown us anything this year, it’s that they know how to bounce back from adversity.

“Postseason, the games are always going to be tight,” Massey said. “I think you kind of expect that going in, and just an unfortunate break. We’re a resilient group, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem coming back Monday and bouncing back.”

Wacha labored from the start of Saturday’s game when he navigated his way through runners on base in the first inning, a 21-pitch frame that factored into Quatraro’s equation in the fifth inning when the manager pulled Wacha after a leadoff walk to Gleyber Torres. The game had already seen two lead changes at that point, with Torres and Royals outfielder MJ Melendez trading two-run short-porch homers in the third and fourth innings, respectively.

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With Wacha at 70 pitches and lefty Juan Soto looming for the third time, Quatraro went early to his bullpen.

“We know how good Soto is, especially when he gets a third look at somebody,” Quatraro said. “If [Wacha] was cruising, that would be a different story, but whether that was a legitimate walk or not [to Torres], it's tough.”

The Royals also trust lefty reliever Angel Zerpa in those spots against lefties. The 25-year-old was a huge part of the Royals’ Game 2 win over the Orioles earlier this week.

Against Zerpa on Saturday, Soto singled up the middle, Judge walked to load the bases and Austin Wells walked to force home the tying run. John Schreiber got out of the inning for the Royals, but not before walking in the go-ahead run on a close pitch to Anthony Volpe.

“Approach doesn’t change,” Zerpa said through interpreter Luis Perez. “You have to go out there and believe in yourself and know that you can make pitches and get people out. It’s the same hitter all the time.”

The Royals responded in the top of the fifth with Garrett Hampson’s pinch-hit two-run single. With a 5-4 lead, Quatraro turned to another high-leverage lefty, Sam Long, for the sixth inning, only to see Long walk left-handed-hitting Alex Verdugo in the nine-hole.

“On four frickin’ pitches,” Long said. “... Coming into that situation, we just took the lead, and you want to go get that first guy out, especially against a good lineup. When you get a chance to get the nine-hitter out first, you need to take advantage of it.”

Soto singled to put runners on first and second with one out against Long, and Wells knocked the game-tying single against reliever Michael Lorenzen, who also allowed the final go-ahead run in the seventh on Verdugo’s single.

Kansas City might be the underdog in this series, but it had the edge in pitching entering Saturday. Monday will give the Royals another chance to prove it.

“We walked too many people today, but I think our pitchers will get back on track,” Perez said. “Everybody can have a bad day. Today is over. Try to learn from the mistakes we made today and come back Monday to try to get one out of two here.”