Entering their series at Seattle on Friday night, the Royals have flashed some remarkable and promising flourishes.
Through 11 games, they had yet to commit an error — the best such start in American League history once they eclipsed the 2018 Boston Red Sox on Thursday.
That’s no fluke, either. Not with Gold Gloves galore over the years for catcher Sal Perez … and in the mitts of outfielders Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor last season … and with a Bermuda Triangle of three stellar would-be shortstops across the infield.
Then there’s the bullpen, which through Thursday had gone a week and 21.1 innings since allowing a run. Its ongoing success is more susceptible to the whims and ups and downs of the season ahead, but it’s certainly encouraging now.
Trouble is, though, that the Royals are just 5-6 despite those outstanding early distinctions.
Because their offense is 29th in the major leagues with a total of 31 runs.
So maybe there is an interesting Rorschach test to be applied here:
Is this team fortunate to be treading water or unfortunate not to be taking advantage of the parts of the game in which it is thriving?
That will be better answered over time, of course.
But in the moment, we’re left to dwell on this: their scant margin for error in a season marked by nine games decided by two runs or fewer — including in each of the last seven.
And we’re left to scrutinize how in a 1-0 loss to Minnesota on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium they squandered another great defensive game and stellar bullpen performance and another nice start by Zack Greinke (one run in five innings).
And left to think once more about the benefits, and lack thereof, of bunting like Nicky Lopez decided to do in the ninth inning only to pop out … a play we’ll come back to.
The Royals had some chances before then, to be sure, not to mention some crummy luck.
In the fourth, Benintendi crushed a ball to deep right that would have been out about anywhere else.
“I’m sure you could see from my reaction, I thought there was no question that that was going to be a homer,” said Benintendi, who certainly had admired the shot. “But it is what it is: It’s a big yard with a lot of wind, so it’s unfortunate.”
So was the ensuing fly out to center by Sal Perez, which Benintendi figured was brought back by the wind “a good 20 yards at least” and led to Benintendi being thrown out at the plate.
Even if it was the right move to try to make something happen, that wasn’t the only base-running decision that went awry: An inning later, rookie Bobby Witt Jr. walked only to misread a cue and get picked off.
Witt also was left stranded at second after his two-out double in the eighth. But the Royals had one more chance to rally when Taylor led off the ninth inning with a walk.
Up came Lopez, hitting .367 entering the game and batting leadoff for the first time this season and having hit two doubles on Tuesday.
Bunting is part of his game, to be sure. And he was surely mindful of the prime directive in that situation of getting the runner to second. And the sacrifice bunt has figured favorably in two of the Royals’ five victories.
But, alas, this one didn’t help, and the Twins emerged unscathed after inducing groundouts by Whit Merrifield and Benitendi.
Afterward, Lopez said bunting wasn’t even a hard decision and he’d do the same thing again.
“Everyone knew I was probably going to bunt there,” he said. “That’s what I do; I just popped it up. More times than not, I’m not popping it up.”
He later added: “Sometimes, it’s baseball, man, it gets away from you.”
Just like this one got away from the Royals.
Not because Lopez bunted unsuccessfully, to be clear.
If it worked as it typically would, we might be having a different view of the day and thinking about how the Royals won their fourth in a row to climb back above .500.
And it’s also worth remembering that it’s ultimately about how it’s executed in the long haul, not every time … unless you see no redeeming value in the bunt like some do.
Still, the play amplified the broader issue for a team sputtering so much offensively that it must seek to manufacture runs.
To the point where every … single … opportunity is an episode in itself.
That’s a snapshot of the tenuous now for the Royals, who will define themselves over the coming weeks as all of these early trends morph into hard-wired traits … or don’t.
The fielding is here to stay, and the bullpen could be real, too.
But an offense with capable parts is going to have to be something quite more, or we’re going to be focused way too much on a lot of little things like whether a bunt was a good idea or not.
