Mike Matheny Addresses Royals’ Offensive Struggles After 1-0 Loss

Matheny says the bats will wake up, but they're currently in a funk.

After a three-game winning streak got them back to .500 on the season, the Kansas City Royals are back to having a losing record. The club capped off its series against the Minnesota Twins with a 1-0 loss in front of the home crowd. 

Pitching wasn't the issue, as Kansas City's staff combined to surrender eight hits but just a single run against the Twins' lineup. Starter Zack Greinke went five innings and gave up the lone run of the game, also being charged with his first loss of 2022. Gabe Speier, Taylor Clarke and Dylan Coleman combined to allow two hits while recording four strikeouts the rest of the way. The Royals' offense, however, struggled immensely. After the game, manager Mike Matheny addressed the lackluster outing. 

"Just a really good start by Zack, limiting the damage to just the one run," Matheny said. "You always believe that's going to be enough. If we can keep them there, our offense is going to get things going. We just didn't have a lot of opportunities."

Opportunities were indeed scarce for Kansas City, but there were a couple. After an Andrew Benintendi triple in the fourth inning, Salvador Perez attempted to hit a sacrifice fly but Benintendi got gunned out at home plate. In the ninth inning, with a runner on base, Nicky Lopez tried to lay down a bunt and ended up popping it up for an out. The Royals' order simply couldn't get much going and when it did have a chance to make things happen, those opportunities were squandered.

In addition to steady 2022 performers such as Lopez and Hunter Dozier struggling, some slumping Royals continued to play poorly on Thursday. Whit Merrifield went 0-for-4 and Adalberto Mondesi went 0-for-3, lowering their respective batting averages to .136 and .135 on the year. Royal bats mustered just three hits all game long, which isn't going to cut it against any opponent in baseball. Matheny knows the Royals are in a funk, but he's confident that his group will snap out of it. 

"First, the message is 'good series win,'" Matheny said. "That's the takeaway right now, at this point. It's obvious that we need to get our offense going. We can't continue to throw shutouts every single night. The guys know that. We're going to have to do the little things right, going to have to get big hits. It's just common sense. They're doing the proper work and preparation to give us every chance. It's going to happen — we're going to break out — but right now, we're just in one of those spots."

Coming out of Thursday's game, the Royals rank near the bottom of MLB in several offensive categories. They aren't putting enough runs on the board, they aren't hitting for a good enough collective average and their power has mostly been either absent or inconsistent. There was plenty of hype surrounding the lineup heading into the season, but that has since been extinguished almost entirely.

Kansas City doesn't have much time to figure things out on the fly, as the team now heads to the Northwest for a series against the Seattle Mariners. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 8:40 p.m. CST on Friday night, with Brad Keller and Chris Flexen listed as probable starters. In the two subsequent games, Kris Bubic and Carlos Hernandez are expected to take the mound for the Royals.