Mike Matheny on Royals’ Mishaps vs. Athletics: ‘Very Atypical for Us'
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The Kansas City Royals had a chance to secure a series win over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday, but the visitors had other plans.
In what turned out to be a thrilling contest that ended in a 9-7 score, Oakland jumped out to a 5-1 lead by the time starting pitcher Brad Keller was removed from the game with two outs in the fourth inning. It was a rather uninspiring performance from Keller, now 2-9 on the season, although he didn't receive much backing from anyone in order to push through adversity. After the game, Royals manager Mike Matheny spoke about his club's struggles in multiple areas.
Jun 12, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny (22) returns to the dugout against the Baltimore Orioles after a pitcher change in the fourth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
"Amazing to get back in that game with as many mistakes as we made," Matheny said. "This was very atypical for us, whether it was defensively or on the bases. Things happened that don't normally happen that cost us. We had some good opportunities, the guys kept fighting to keep us in it. Brad (Keller) wasn't as sharp as he would like to be, but he certainly didn't get a lot of help to get him through."
The aforementioned baserunning errors came back to haunt the Royals. In the eighth inning with the club rallying, outfielder Kyle Isbel was thrown out while trying to advance to third base on a wild pitch. Matheny identified that as something the 25-year-old would be thinking about for the rest of the night, and for good reason. Kansas City has plenty of athletic talent in its lineup but too many times this season, a player has been caught trying to be too greedy or simply being out of place and not able to recover in time. Saturday featured yet another instance of that.
Defensively, things got off to a rocky start in the first inning when shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. committed a fielding error. The mishaps didn't stop there, however, as outfielder Edward Olivares failed to properly locate two fly balls in the sun and ended up losing track of both of them. Keller was charged with doubles for both, so the final box score doesn't paint quite enough of an accurate picture. Kansas City's defense, normally one of the more solid units in all of baseball, failed its starting pitcher on a hot afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. When asked about Olivares' hiccups in the outfield, Matheny pointed to a lack of MLB-level reps as of late.
"Oli hasn't been here that much to get that 3 o'clock work when we're out here doing early work just because he's been injured and been on the road and not been able to really work on it that much," Matheny said. "We're going to have to kick that into gear. The first one is just a tough one. On the second one, we have to position ourselves in a way to where we're attacking the ball differently. Those are just things that a player needs to learn."
With Olivares back from his stint on the Injured List, he'll continue to receive opportunities to get to where he needs to be. He's hitting the ground running and his defense has improved, but Saturday's game showed that there's still plenty of work to do. The same can be said about Isbel either in the outfield or on the basepaths, and it can be said about Witt as well (despite him being mostly terrific). The Royals may not be a young team overall, but they're still putting their faith in several young players to log heavy innings nonetheless. Growing pains will come with that and on Sunday, Kansas City will hope for fewer of those and a better outcome overall.
