If there was any reason for hope for the Kansas City Royals this season, it came from their lineup. Youngsters Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and MJ Melendez showed plenty of promise last season. Salvador Perez is always a power threat. While the pitching staff may be a work in progress, the Royals were expected to score in bunches.
And then the regular season started. The Royals were the 11th team since 1901 to be shut out in their first two games of the season. Although they did manage to score four runs on Sunday, they were still swept in the opening series. That performance was sub-optimal to say the least.
Hope exists for Kansas City Royals
But this is not just another bad offensive team for the Royals. As Dave Holtzman pointed out on Twitter, the Royals had the highest hard hit rate (53.8%) during the opening weekend. Their 90.1 MPH average exit velocity tied for fourth. The Royals should have had a lot more balls fall in for hits.
Those balls started to find grass on Monday. While the Royals primarily used soft flares for their three run first inning, they hammered Jose Berrios in the fourth. Melendez greeted reliever Zach Pop with a missile into the fountains for a two run homer in the sixth. The offense, as expected from the swings they had earlier in the year, came to life.
In theory, everything evens out. Those hard outs will become soft hits later in the year. Well struck balls will found the grass as well or go over the fence. It is inevitable. For one night at least, those hits evened themselves out.
The Kansas City Royals have hit the ball hard to begin the 2023 season. The results began to come through on Monday night.
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