Three Takeaways From the Royals' 6-3 Loss to the Athletics
The Kansas City Royals fall short in their third straight game and they're eighth of nine games, as the Oakland Athletics defeat them 6-3 to win the series.
The Athletics hit three home runs in the game, all on Kris Bubic and coming from their big-name players, Matt Chapman and Matt Olson.
Kansas City drops to a 30-34 record on the season, while Oakland improves to 40-27. Here are three things I took away from today's game.
It's time to sound the alarm on Kris Bubic's 2021 season
I'm specifying 2021 because I think Bubic will be just fine long-term, but for his current form, there is plenty of room for concern. Bubic is in a real skid, with his ERA skyrocketing from 1.52 to 4.01 in the last three games. His primary pitch, changeup, has also struggled, as that was his pitch on two of the three home runs with the other coming on a four-seamer. Bubic has to get control back on his changeup and turn it around soon because his last two starts have basically been throwing the game away and we know he is capable of greatness based on his May.
Andrew Benintendi belongs in the top four of our lineup
Benintendi hit another home run today, his eighth of the season. It was also his fifth opposite-field home run of the season, which leads the league among left-handed hitters. Benintendi continues to step up in some pretty big situations for the team, being just one point behind Carlos Santana for second on the team in OPS. With what he has done for the Royals, Benintendi is one of the clear four best options in our lineup along with Salvador Perez, Santana and Whit Merrifield.
Jarrod Dyson should start over Michael A. Taylor for at least a couple more games
Taylor got a rest day in yesterday's major loss, as Dyson started and went 1-for-3 with a single and a walk. Entering today, Taylor had a .472 OPS in the month of June and it once again will get worse than that, as he went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts today. Meanwhile, Dyson has gone 3-for-7 with one walk, one RBI, one strikeout and three stolen bases in the month of June. That's a .929 OPS for the month so far. Obviously, we shouldn't expect Dyson to continue anything near that, but Dyson's current form vs. Taylor's current form gives the advantage to Dyson.
