The Royals might be lingering towards the bottom of their division, but what they displayed tonight in a 3-1 win over the Mariners showed why I picked them as World Series winners in our pre-season picks. The Royals scrap and scrape and don’t give at-bats away; they’re the hardest team to strike out in the American League. As someone scarred by the 2024 Mariners, who treated the strike zone like Jackson Pollock throwing paint on a canvas, you can understand why the high-contact Royals captured my preseason heart.
On paper, Logan Evans seemed like a poor matchup for these Royals, given his lack of swing-and-miss stuff.