Royals-White Sox, April 9, TJ Stats Analysis

[Kevin O'Brien]

As I did during Spring Training, I would like to go on here and analyze Royals pitching performances using TJ Stats' TJ Stuff+ Summaries for a particular game. I was able to be at last night's Royals-White Sox game at the K, and it was a brutal offensive effort, but the pitching was encouraging. Here's a breakdown of the Royals pitchers who appeared in yesterday's 2-0 loss.

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Seth Lugo (6.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 4 K)

I thought Lugo was pretty efficient here and took care of business. He really only gave up one bad, hard hit, and honestly, that double by Colson Montgomery should've been held to a single (Lance Thomas took a terrible angle, and the relay throw from Bobby was off). The control got away from him in the seventh, which ended up costing the Royals a run (though an error by Vinnie didn't help). Lugo isn't blowing anyone away with whiffs or chases, but he's limiting the hard contact and relying on his defense, which is refreshing to see.

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John Schreiber (0.2 IP, 0 ER, 0 K, 0 BB)

I thought this was an encouraging outing from Schreiber. Generated a ton of chase, a good amount of whiff, and really limited hard contact. Stuff was meh, but that's his MO going forward. He's older, and it's just not going to trend in the right direction. Schreiber had a job to do, and honestly, he did it, but his defense didn't help. 

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Eli Morgan (2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 K, 1 BB)

Okay, Morgan may be a dude. Another multiple-inning outing and he once again limited opposing hitters. 31.3% chase and 30.8% whiff on 27 pitches. 101 TJ Stuff+ overall with his changeup producing a 104 TJ Stuff+ mark and 42.9% chase. There's a great middle-innings profile here, and he could move into higher leverage if he keeps this going. 

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Anthony Kay (5.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K)

Listen, the Royals' offense stunk. But you've got to give credit to Kay, who earned his first win since 2021 (what?). Kay was averaging 96,3 MPH on his four-seamer and had a 102 TJ Stuff+. He generated a 35.7% chase and 26.7% whiff on the pitch and a 30.4% and 31% chase and whiff overall. He made some mistakes early and the Royals didn't take advantage (Vinnie had like 3 foul balls that could've been home runs if he kept it fair). It wasn't a good day for the Royals bats, but Kay deserves some credit here.