Young Royals ‘Believe in Themselves’ During Hot Stretch of Play
The Kansas City Royals have won just over 41% of their games this season — a 66-win pace — but no one would be able to tell if they just recently started following the team.
As Alec Lewis of The Athletic pointed out, Kansas City is 7-4 in its last 11 games and is 26-25 over its last 51 contests. That's a marked improvement over a club whose season was all but over just a couple of brief months into the year. It seems like forever ago that the Royals started off the season 2-0 or battled back to 5-5, and for good reason. They haven't been a .500-or-better team ever since then. By the end of May, they'd won just a third of their games on the year. It's been a long time coming.
With the passing of the 2022 MLB trade deadline, the youth movement has been in full effect in Kansas City. The likes of Nick Pratto, Nate Eaton and Michael Massey have joined Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez and Vinnie Pasquantino (and 25-year-old Kyle Isbel) at the big-league level and are contributing to winning baseball. In Wednesday night's 8-3 comeback thriller against the Chicago White Sox, the youngsters combined with veteran Salvador Perez to chip in. Take a look:
- Melendez: 3-for-4, 2 RBI
- Witt: 2-for-4, RBI
- Pasquantino: 2-for-5
- Eaton: Run scored
- Pratto: Walk, run scored
- Massey: 1-for-3, RBI
- Isbel: 2-for-4, 2 RBI
Down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning following starting pitcher Kris Bubic running out of gas, the young Royals tied things up at 3 apiece. Following that frame, they went on to tack on five insurance runs the rest of the way and ended up winning in a convincing fashion. It was an offensive onslaught powered by resilience, which isn't something that the Royals have had in abundance this year. After the game, Melendez spoke about the mindset of he and his peers.
"I think we're super confident right now," Melendez said. "It's something that [is] super fun, super exciting to be a part of. We're really confident at the plate. I feel like we're never really out of a game — especially a close game like that. I feel like we're given plenty of opportunities to get the job done and I feel like it really doesn't matter who's on the opposite side of the field.
That makes two wins out of three contests thus far in the Royals' series against the Chicago White Sox, and they'll have the chance to secure an overall series win on Thursday afternoon. Kansas City is 5-2 over the course of its current homestand, and that momentum has another four games to continue before the current home team hits the road for seven straight outings. Manager Mike Matheny is thrilled with the confidence Melendez mentioned, and he thinks things are looking up for his bunch.
"They just believe in themselves right now," Matheny said. "I think they just know we've got to make something happen. There's a vibe in there, and that usually comes along with playing better baseball and stacking up some wins when you need them, and we need them. They're in this spot right now where they trust each other, and that next man up thing. 'I'm going to get my job done, you're going to get yours done.' And they celebrate. They celebrate pretty hard too, I love it."
The 2022 season is mostly a sunk cost for the Royals, as they stand very little chance of finishing where they were expected to in the standings. With that said, they can still partially recover from a downright dreadful start to the year. This version of the team is different than the one from May, June, or — in some ways — July. Personnel has changed, and so have fortunes on the field.
It remains to be seen whether this level of play can be sustained, but one thing seems certain: These young Royals keep fighting. They don't go away. They're hungry, and they compete. Even if they're overperforming and the overall talent level has yet to catch up with a .500-or-so baseball club, the results are speaking for themselves at the moment. As the 2022 campaign slowly comes to a close and thoughts about the 2023 season begin to creep in, that's worth at least something.
