What is there to say about Michael Wacha at this point? Do you think any teams are regretting not blowing the Royals away with an offer for him at the trade deadline? All I can say for sure is that the Royals and Royals fans can be very happy he's still in KC, as he led the team to a 3-0 victory over the Guardians tonight.
Prior to tonight, Wacha's best start of the season was back on April 11 when he pitched eight shutout innings against the White Sox. Tonight he matched that but struck out more, walked fewer, and allowed the same number of hits. To be specific, he gave up four hits (all singles), walked none, and struck out ten. Pretty damn good.
Early on, he looked fine but not utterly dominant. He got the first six outs in order, but only struck out one. The third inning was the first (and, as it turns out, only) inning he allowed multiple baserunners. In the bottom of the fourth, that all changed when he got José Ramírez to pop out to Carter Jensen, then struck out Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe. From then on, he struck out six while allowing only two more baserunners, including a strikeout looking of Steven Kwan to record his final out in the eighth. That made the first time Michael Wacha had struck out double digits in a game since he struck out 11 against KC for the Padres back in 2023.
The Royals' offense appreciates the heck out of him for it because it was not a good night for them. They had multiple scoring opportunities, but struggled to get any of them home. Tanner Bibee got a lot of soft flyouts and popouts. The Royals' only run of the night was scored in the fifth inning. Bobby Witt Jr. torched a ball over 110 MPH off the top of the high wall in left field. Jac Caglianone had gone 2-for-2 with a pair of singles prior to that point and hit a jam shot into right that Petey Halpin managed to run down, advancing Bobby to third. Then Salvy smoked a grounder that required Bryan Rochio to dive for it to keep it on the infield, but allowed Bobby to score easily.
The ninth inning was shaping up to be a disaster for the offense. Isaac Collins led off with a line drive into right that clanked off the glove of Jo Adell. Josh Rojas bunted him over to third, then the Royals pinch-ran Tyler Tolbert for him. The broadcast speculated that Kyle Isbel might attempt to squeeze him home, but instead Kyle swung away and struck out on a nasty Craig Yoho changeup. With two strikes, Carter Jensen seemed doomed to offer an encore of Isbel's performance, and longtime Royals fans could just feel the Guardians gearing up for a walk-off win in the ninth off of Steven Cruz. But Yoho chose to offer a cutter to Carter instead of the changeup, and Carter got just enough of it to get it off the top of the wall and over.
The Missile still came on for the save in the ninth. He allowed two singles and a hit by pitch, but struck out a pair, including Ramírez, and got a soft ground out to end the game. So no harm was done.
Coming into tonight, both teams had been extremely hot and hitting the tar out of the ball. So naturally we had a low-scoring contest. But the good guys came out on top, and that's what matters. They've got two more games in Cleveland and in August. Winning both of them would go a long way toward letting the dreamers dream .
The Royals will have a very tough matchup tomorrow afternoon. Seth Lugo (4.61 ERA, 4.51 SIERA) will go for KC. Foster Griffin (3.19 ERA, 3.86 SIERA) will go for Cleveland. The game will be at 3:10 Royals time. See you then.
