Royals' Carlos Estévez Has 5-Word Response To 9th-Inning Meltdown Vs. Rockies
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Things looked awfully bleak for Carlos Estévez and the Kansas City Royals for a few minutes on Tuesday night.
After holding a 2-0 lead for most of the late innings against the lowly Colorado Rockies, Estévez, the Royals' most expensive free-agent signing of the winter, allowed a three-run, go-ahead double to catcher Jacob Stallings with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.
Estévez had walked the bases loaded, so the damage was entirely self-inflicted. It was his second blown save of the year, but thankfully, the Royals had his back. Michael Massey tied it with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth, then Freddy Fermín won it with a walk-off single in the 11th.
After the game, Estévez took full blame for giving the entire Royals dugout heart palpitations, but also emphasized that it was a good sign his team picked him up on what was clearly an off night.
“That’s what good teams do,” said Estévez, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “Hey, one day you can be the hero. And the next day, we are going to back you up. And that’s the way I saw it. I've always been talking about the fight with these guys, it’s just amazing.
“I love to see that in the ninth inning, late in the game.... They had my back right there in a big way.”
Should Royals fans have larger concerns about Estévez through his first 10 outings with the team? He's got a 3.27 ERA but a 4.21 FIP, and his four-seam fastball is two miles per hour slower on average than it was in 2024, with a whiff rate of 19 percent compared to 23 percent a year ago.
Well, it's early, and pitchers often find their groove as the weather heats up. Estévez had his best season as a professional last year, so a couple uneven outings isn't necessarily cause for panic yet.
But if the Royals are out of the playoff race by the trade deadline, they may also have to consider whether this year is the right time to ship Estévez away, because at age 32, he'll never have a higher trade value than he does now.
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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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