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Royals No-Hit For Second Time in Team History
Thirty-five years and three days after Nolan Ryan held Kansas City hitless, Jon Lester became the second pitcher to accomplish the feat against the Royals. Walks to Billy Butler in the second and Esteban German in the ninth were the only blemishes on the Red Sox hurler’s resume Monday night and only a Jose Guillen sinking liner even threatened to be a hit.
While Lester was the story last night, the game was over long before it became apparent that history might be in the making. The Royals surrendered five runs in the third inning: four of those with two outs and three of those unearned. It was an odd inning that included a run scoring double play, a triple, three consecutive walks and a dropped infield fly by Mark Grudzielanek.
The Royals, as they often do after the opposition has a big inning, went quickly and quietly in the top of the fourth on just eight pitches. That effectively signaled that the rest of the game was just a formality. It also set the stage for me to write about how the Royals often, when faced with an early deficit, simply panic at the plate and try to hit five run homers. However, given that Lester went on to pitch a no-hitter (exhibiting pinpoint control along the way), it seems a little unfair to jump on the Royals’ plate discipline. Sadly, I’m sure there will be other opportunities this season to write about that.
Instead, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back to May 15, 1973 and look at the Royals’ lineup the night Nolan Ryan tossed his gem against Kansas City. The batting lines following each player are for the entire 1973 season:
Fred Patek SS 234/311/321
Steve Hovely RF 254/346/323
Amos Otis CF 300/368/484
John Mayberry 1B 278/417/478
Cookie Rojas 2B 276/320/372
Ed Kirkpatrick DH 263/333/375
Lou Piniella LF 250/291/361
Paul Schaal 3B 288/389/399
Carl Taylor C 228/363/283
The Royals finished 88-74 that season and scored 755 runs, the second most in the American League. Looking at those batting numbers you may find it hard to believe that this was a potent offensive group, but remember your era. In 1973, Rod Carew hit .350, but George Scott finished second in the batting race with just a .306 average. The guys hitting in the .270s that year are really comparable to a guy hitting .290 or so now.
Also keep in mind that both Otis and Mayberry slugged 26 home runs in 1973, Patek stole 36 bases and Rojas 18 more. Mayberry’s .417 on-base percentage led the league and he was second in OPS. Here’s another ‘era thing’: only Reggie Jackson, with an OPS of .915, topped the .900 mark in that category. Nine AL players accomplished that feat in 2007.
Moving back to 2007, the Royals look to Gil Meche to get back on the winning track. This is exactly why they brought Gil into the fold and last year, he was very good at giving his team a solid outing after a bad game. The Royals need him to do so again on Tuesday night.
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21 Responses to “Royals No-Hit For Second Time in Team History”
May 20th, 2008 at 5:06 am
And so is the life of a Kansas City Royals’ fan. Sweep Detroit, take two of three from the NL East leading Marlins and then get squashed by a big market team.
Kansas City got no press for sweeping Detroit a week ago, got no press for taking the Florida series, but reguardless of how many hits they got, be it one, ten or zero…they were going to be all over ESPN for getting beaten so bad from the mighty, indestrucable, never did anything wrong, Red Sox.
So what would have happened if it happened the other way around? The baby bitin’, cheatin’, Luxury Tax stealin’ Royals no hit the poor, everyone is injured, the umpire was bias Red Sox.
And so is the life of a Kansas City Royals’ fan.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Thanks for the plug, Clark. I returned the favor.
Tough for the Royals to take it on the chin like that, but maybe Dayton will be compelled to upgrade the O now… might be a blessing in disguise.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Evan - Dayton’s a stick with the plan guy from what I can tell. I’m fully convinced he is content to wait for Gordon and Butler to develop into true middle of the order mashers as opposed to making a serious move to upgrade the offense.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Blaaaaaaah–So much Dick Kaegel on the team site lately. Seems like he’s been pumping out 3-5 awful pieces a day lately. What happened to those other guys that seemed to be taking over for a while?
“Now what?
The Royals were on a roll. They’d won six out of seven games. Jose Guillen was hotter than a firecracker. Mark Grudzielanek was leading the American League in hitting. They’d just won two of three games from a National League first-place team.
What could possibly stop them?
Oh, just a no-hitter by Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester.”
BAM! Gotcha there readers! Oh, nothing really, just a little no-hitter! Hah, bet you didn’t even know.
Must we do these coy Q&A conversationals with every article? Must we use use the *most* hackneyed similies possible every article? “Hotter than a firecracker”–you’re at a damn keyboard. You have all night. I’m not asking for genius here–not even originality. Just give me the second-most obvious comparison. Or hell, just move the same awful comparison one notch up on the literary scale and make it a metaphor.
Sorry, this doesn’t have anything to do with anything that’s been said on this site. I’ve just been drowning in Dick Kaegel, and I needed to vent. Please Kaegel, if you’re reading this, stop the pain. Just stop.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Anyone else think that if the Royals had Greinke in the lineup, we wouldn’t have been no-hit?
May 20th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Chris… we feel your pain.
Meche… get us back on track!
May 20th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I find it amusing that to most people, this game signified a problem with the offense. On some days, you’re going to find a hot pitcher. I think the top end on scorable runs in that game would have been two (top end being all of our guys playing well offensively).
Which means no-hitter or not, we would have lost that game. That walk to Pedroia was terribad, especially since it was a four-pitch walk. With two outs, and the red-hot Ortiz and Royals-killing Manny coming up, I don’t care if you have to underhand it, throw a damn strike.
Then you have Grud’s drop, which was perplexing even to him. Combine those two and you could have had three Barry Bonds clones hitting in the middle of the lineup and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
The third inning would have been 1, maybe 2 runs, then the legit 2 run shot off of Hochevar. That’s a 3-4 run outing from a rookie in his first start at Fenway, and that’s winnable when the pitcher doesn’t go off on you.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Well, to keep things nauseatingly positive, at least it wasn’t a perfect game that Lester threw!
Sucks that this happened, but I am happy for Lester after the personal health situation he has endured and conquered. Just wish it would have been against the Yankees, ya know?!
Clark, I agree that GMDM will be patient with the lineup and wait for Butler and Gordon to mature into sluggers. And, I think he should. But, I think we may see a couple of minor changes at the beginning of June. I do believe that Pena has about 10 days to get above .200 or he will be replaced and possibly sent down. Yabuta is another guy that may be on a short leash as well. I don’t think the possible coming changes will dramatically improve things, but they could be symbolic of GMDM’s lack of tolerance for consistently underachieving performance and his commitment to succeed.
One game does not a seaon make. This isn’t even a setback. Was only a bump in the road. If KC somehow wins the next two games, who cares about the no-no? Will be interesting to see how the young guys bounce back from this.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:49 am
What makes people think that TPJ will EVER be “sent down”? He is out of options which is one of the reasons the Braves traded him to us in the first place. Since he is such a high-quality glove man… he will NOT pass through waivers IMO. The only option is to trade a guy like German or even Grudz to clear up the logjam of middle infielders and then call up Aviles or (hey, it COULD happen) Berroa. I just don’t think this is going to happen.
Which leads me to believe that if GMDM does lose tolerance… Pena will rot on the bench and become the defensive replacement while Callaspo gets HIS shot.
As for the no-no… it actually REALLY IS “just another game” as far as the standings go. I don’t think it will affect the phsyce of this team at all. And I agree that we need a quality start from Gil for several reasons not the least of which is to get back in the win column and get past the “stigma” that SOME associate with being no-hit. And it seems that he is NOT earning his salary this year after earning every dollar of it last year. It is time, Gil for you to FIGURE IT OUT!!!
Lastly, and sorry for rambling, but as for the offensive woes in general… we COULD sign Barry Lamar but at what cost? Other than that… we are limited in options unless you consider Aviles/Berroa/Costa/Shealy as viable options. I think MAYBE Aviles deserves the shot but the others… not so much… at least not now.
Butler and Gordon need to grow up in a hurry. Guillen needs to visualize that he is in Miami all the time and that the weather is over 70 degrees. The rest of the lineup just needs to get its collective head out of its collective butt and perform like their jobs depend on it because they SHOULD!!! As should Mike Barnett’s job. He and trainer Swartz would be the first shown the door if I ever got to run the team for a day. lol
Anyway, Craig and Clark… keep up the good work and continue to give us True Blue Royals fans a place to chat. Go Royals!!! C-ya, AusSteveW
May 20th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Yabuta’s slowly getting it together - right now the Royals are kind of treating him like a Rule 5 guy - but maybe that’s the way to assimilate him. His on a multi-year deal, so they HAVE to keep working with him.
A lot of talk on the radio yesterday about Pena, both for and against. I may have a blast or two about that on Thursday (unless Craig beats me to it). *As an aside, if that doesn’t set up TPJ for a three for four night, I don’t know what else I can do!*
May 20th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Chris - Don’t be a baby and take it like a man. I’m a Sox fan and I’d give you credit if your team pitched a no-hitter. Sucks it had to happen to KC since I’d prefer it be LAA or NYY any day of the week, but it happened. I’d be careful with what you call the Sox too. They’re not indestructible and we have a good amount injured, but we still fight hard to come out on top. I think they’ve earned where they are even if you think adversely.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Besides the Royals will most likely take at least one game out of this series. I’m not going to be a prick and predict nothing but sweep.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:13 am
This season, the Royals:
Have been shut out 5 times.
Have been kept to one run or less 9 times.
are 3rd-from-last overall in OPS at 683.
are 3rd-from-last overall in Runs Scored at 165.
On a positive note, we’re up to 19th in total hits!!
Now I’m not saying that one could look at our team OBP and our results thus far and say that one could predict this no-hit (it is still an amazing feat), but I am saying that this isn’t exactly surprising. We had two people playing yesterday with an average below 200. TWO PEOPLE PLAYING YESTERDAY WITH AN AVERAGE BELOW 200.
Just for poopies and giggles, (and an ensured depressive state after reading this), the Royals fielded a team yesterday of 7 players that are hitting 280 or below. And of the three that are at or above 280, one replaced the other midway through the game.
Oh, Boston? They only had 4 players yesterday that hit below 280. One of them was David Freaking Ortiz…and the other two are hitting in the mid 270s.
You know. Just a little perspective.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Hey guys I have a question on the DH rule. With all this talk about grienke being a good hitter is the american league team required to use a DH when playing an american league team. So could grienke hit on the days he pitches?
May 20th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Sounds like a blessing that I had to leave in the middle of the third yesterday to take the family to dinner, looked even at that point but went downhill from there, Yabuta has had a couple of solid no risk outings, Pena hit good for a few games after shortening up but seems to be lengthing his swing again and the coaches are letting him get away with it, I agree that a week or two on the bench might be just the thing for him, or at least give Collaspo a try 2-3 times per week, we need to see what he can do anyway, I guess young pitchers have a tough time getting the 3rd strike and 3rd out, hopefully Hochevar is just passing through that place and can keep improving
May 20th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Glenn - there is no rule that you HAVE to use a DH. In fact, Bill Veeck ordered his manager to have Ken Brett hit when he pitched for the White Sox in the late 70s.
Now, don’t get Zack all fired up about hitting - it’s taken us five years to get him excited about being a starting pitcher!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:04 am
It’s pretty hard to go hitless these days, but the Royals found a way.
http://grittyandclutch.blogspot.com/2008/05/royals-show-solidarity-for-struggling.html
May 20th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Bloody awful. If I had deliberately tried to imagine a worst case scenario, I wouldn’t have imagined something this awful. I think the team became dispirited after the unspeakable Grudz error. I know I suffered a sensation of complete unreality when I saw it happen. I live in Sox territory and my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Fortunately, I believe we will take the next three and that will help a great deal to ease the pain.
http://marklaflamme.com/blog/?p=906
May 20th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
This team has still won 6 of their last 8, lets not go crazy.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Tru dat, Gene. The train is still on the rails.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hurray Alex! We don’t have to worry about getting no hit tonight.
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