The first half of 2023's I-70 Series begins on Memorial Day, with the Kansas City Royals (15-38) trekking across Missouri to take on the St. Louis Cardinals (24-30). Kansas City's goal is to bounce back from a pair of one-run losses in St. Louis last season. In the regular season, the Cardinals are 73-47 all-time against their in-state rivals, although the Royals won the 1985 World Series in seven games. With St. Louis in control of this series, let's see if Kansas City can fight back even amid a terrible season. This game is scheduled to start at 2:15 p.m. EDT on Monday, with Busch Stadium welcoming fans.
This season has been death by a thousand cuts for the Kansas City Royals, as they're one of the two MLB teams winning fewer than 30% of their games. So it goes with pitching as ineffective as Kansas City's. Ranking 29th in staff ERA, their pitching style is not getting the results that anyone wants. Their starter for this game is undecided, which can't bring many of their fans peace considering the usual options are already awful. Forcing their thing bullpen, with a collective 4.94 ERA (28th) and 11.9% walk rate (29th), to pitch the entire game against this offense would just be mean.
If this was a movie, Kansas City's offense would be overcoming the odds consistently and leading the team forward. However, it's not, as the team is 26th in runs per game. That's nothing new though with last year's team finishing 24th. Don't blame Salvador Perez or Vinnie Pasquantino for the Royals' wo es because both men are raking this year. Instead, a bottom-10 walk rate and strikeout rate should shoulder the blame for the run-scoring labyrinth that Kansas City is trapped in. With a league-worst OBP and only 26th-ranked slugging percentage, offensive happiness doesn't appear to be on the horizon.