Royals Trade Pickup Offers Blunt 3-Word Assessment Of Ugly KC Debut
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The Kansas City Royals will have Bailey Falter in the fold through 2028, so there's plenty of time left to make a good impression.
That being said, the Royals were hoping for a good first impression from Falter, as he toed the rubber on Monday night in a big game for the Royals against the red-hot Boston Red Sox. Instead, it felt nearly over almost as quickly as it began.
Falter allowed two earned runs before he recorded an out, thanks to a Rob Refsnyder bases-loaded single. But just as it looked like he might escape the inning with further damage, Jarren Duran unloaded with a three-run home run to dead center, putting Kansas City in a quick 5-0 hole.
Falter would wind up being charged with seven earned runs in the Royals' 8-5 loss, raising his season ERA from 3.75 to 4.14. For a team that needed starting pitching at last week's trade deadline, it wasn't the most encouraging start from the first new pitcher to debut.
“Tough one tonight,” Falter said, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “Job is to go out there and set the tone for these guys. And I didn’t do my job. I’ll think about it tonight. Get with the pitching staff tomorrow, see what we can come up with and definitely try to be better next start.”
Falter still has plenty more outings to find his groove in a Royals uniform. But his team needs every win it can get at this point in the season, as they dropped to 56-57, now four games back of a potential playoff spot.
Hopefully, round two of the new pitching debuts works out better for the Royals, as Ryan Bergert will toe the slab on Tuesday night looking to even the series against Boston's ace, Garrett Crochet.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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