Given that Daniel Lynch is a projected pillar of the Royals’ future, his major-league debut on Monday at Kauffman Stadium was much anticipated. But perhaps by no one more than his family and him as he stepped to the mound against Cleveland.
“I felt like I could barely see, I was so juiced up,” he said. “But I just really tried to take in the moment, and it was amazing.”
So was the way it ended. At least in the sense of the standing ovation he received as he walked off the field with a 3-1 lead with two out and two on in the fifth inning of a game the Royals ultimately lost 8-6.
“That will probably give me chills for the rest of my life, thinking about that,” Lynch said as he prepared to see his family after the game and celebrate a milestone that he called “as much about them as it is about me.”
Between feeling he didn’t quite have his best stuff and some evident jitters just over 24 hours after being told he’d been called up led to a “frantic” few hours before the drive from Omaha, perhaps Lynch’s final line wasn’t as dreamy as he might have hoped since the two men he left on base later scored.
But Lynch was right when he said he wasn’t going to be picky about this moment, reflecting both his appreciation of its meaning in itself but also the mature understanding that this was just a prelude to a gleaming future forecast not just by the Royals organization but all over baseball:
In its most recent rankings, after all, Baseball America ranked him the seventh-best pitching prospect in the minor leagues and 21st-best prospect at any position. MLBPipeline.com considered him No. 24 overall and the second-best left-handed pitching prospect.
And he displayed something meaningful and promising on Monday, when Cleveland was just 1 for 7 against him with runners in scoring position.
“He had stress just about every inning; he had guys on base and umpires calling balks on him,” manager Mike Matheny said. “Just stuff that he was having to deal with that he was able to manage exceptionally well. I thought he just had great poise.”
From early on, actually: Lynch’s first major-league pitch was crunched by Cesar Hernandez to deep center, where the fleet-footed Jarrod Dyson ran it down to the visible relief of Lynch.
After the catch, Lynch smiled and appeared to joke with Hunter Dozier.
When I asked him about that after the game, he laughed and said, “Dyson told me before the game that he’s playing center and to send them out his way.”
Apparently, Dyson then joked, “I didn’t mean the first guy.”
Then again, Lynch didn’t mean to let him hit it that hard, either. But getting that play out of the way, he said, enabled him to “kind of take a deep breath” and bear down.
He’d need that composure in the adventure ahead. But precarious as it was at times, it also might well have ended with a more appealing stat line than 4.2 innings and 3 earned runs (with 4 hits and 4 walks allowed). We’ll get back to that, but first consider the great escapes that defined most of his night.
With two out in the first, he walked back-to-back batters … but emerged unscathed by inducing an inning-ending lineout to left by Eddie Rosario.
The second made for another challenge after Harold Ramirez led off with a double, and he’d later advance to third on a balk. But Lynch stayed unblemished after striking out Josh Naylor and retiring Roberto Perez on a groundout and Yu Chang on a popup.
He pitched to the minimum in the third with a double-play snuffing out a leadoff walk. And he nearly averted another threat in the fourth after another leadoff double, this time by Franmil Reyes. But with two outs and Reyes at third, Naylor doubled to tie the score 1-1.
Then came the pivotal fifth, which was on the very verge of ending without incident as Whit Merrifield turned to complete a seemingly would-be double play.
But Merrifield felt the ball take off on him, misfiring enough that it skimmed off the glove of first baseman Carlos Santana as he tried to hold the bag and caromed off the helmet of Amed Rosario.
When Jose Ramirez followed up with a single, Matheny stared down the dilemma of whether to stay with Lynch (at 74 pitches) or turn to the bullpen. All things considered, from the fact it was Lynch’s debut to the constant stress he’d been in to facing the meat of the order for the third time and having a rested bullpen available, Matheny opted to bring in Scott Barlow.
By the end of the night, after Cleveland’s five-run seventh, Barlow allowing the inherited runners to score and tie it 3-3 was a mere footnote to the game.
But Lynch’s first start was something more. Not seamless, perhaps, but a revealing snapshot of someone we have every reason to figure will only get better as he gets more acclimated and can, you know, see and all when he pitches in the weeks, months and presumably years to come.
