Junis K's 7 but Allows 3 Hrs in Loss to Brewers

Junis K's 7 but Allows 3 Hrs in Loss to Brewers

Daily Clips

June 27, 2018

LOCAL

Junis K's 7 but allows 3 HRs in loss to Brewers

June 26, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com

Perez, Moose remain in top 5 of ASG voting

June 26, 2018By Jordan Wolf/MLB.com

Home runs bite Jakob Junis again as Royals lose to Brewers

June 26, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star

Spirit of Buck O'Neil helps NLBM president cope with vandalism

June 26, 2018By Vahe Gregorian/KC Star

Another former Royals player will handle this week's Facebook-only game against Brewers

June 26, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star

On Ned Yost, the No. 42, and his biggest mistake while managing the Brewers

June 27, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic

Dayton Moore is advocating for Luke Heimlich — but if the Royals eventually sign him, it will be ownership’s call

June 26, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic

MINORS

Chasers Stopped by Express, 3-2

Round Rock send Omaha to 2nd consecutive defeat

June 26, 2018By Omaha Storm Chasers

Big Ninth Inning Dooms Blue Rocks

Vines Strong in Quality Start

June 26, 2018By Wilmington Blue Rocks

Missed Opportunities in Chukars 4-2 loss

June 27, 2018By Idaho Falls Chukars

Royals Blanked by Braves

Burlington falls to 1-7 with 2-0 loss

June 26, 2018By Burlington Royals

NATIONAL

The tricky reliever market for buyers and sellers; can the D-Backs land Manny Machado?; more notes

June 26, 2018By Ken Rosenthal/The Athletic

Is the future ominous for starting pitching? And if so, what would that mean for baseball?

June 27, 2018By Jayson Stark/The Athletic

Wright goes on DL with left knee inflammation

Red Sox call up RHP Haley; Pomeranz, Thornburg progressing in rehab

June 26, 2018By Ian Browne/MLB.com

MLB TRANSACTIONS
June 27, 2018 •.CBSSports.com

LOCAL

Junis K's 7 but allows 3 HRs in loss to Brewers

June 26, 2018By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com

Two trends continued for the Royals on Tuesday night at Miller Park.

Kansas City's offense continued to sputter, and right-hander Jakob Junis continued to give up the long ball.

Junis gave up three more home runs and the Brewers rolled to a 5-1 victory. He now has permitted a Major League-leading 22 home runs.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm giving up a lot of runs on home runs," Junis said. "If I can keep it in the yard, I would have a lot better chance at keeping some runs off the board. But just a couple pitches I'm leaving over the plate are getting handled."

The Royals have lost 18 of their last 21 games, and all three of those wins came as the result of shutouts. Kansas City has scored 43 runs in that 21-game stretch.

"It's not frustration," Royals manager Ned Yost said of the club's rough June. "Well, that's a lie. We're all frustrated. I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen an offensive drought like we've had all month long. It's pretty puzzling. There's no answer for it."

Milwaukee 22-year-old starter Freddy Peralta threw seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball while striking out 10 in his home debut. That one hit was a double in the third inning by Adalberto Mondesi, who also hit his first homer of the season in the eighth.

"He was really good," Yost said of Peralta. "He had a lot of deception. It is hard to explain. He's got a high spin rate, and the ball just kind of jumps on you even though it's 92 mph. Really good curveballs. Commanded it better than I thought he would."

Junis lasted five innings and gave up seven hits and five runs while striking out seven. He left a 3-0 fastball up in the first inning and Christian Yelich belted it the opposite way to left field for a two-run jack. Jesus Aguilar hit a towering solo home run to center field in the third on a 0-1 slider, and Ryan Braun added a two-run shot on a first-pitch slider in the fifth.

"My stuff hasn't been consistent, but tonight I felt a lot better and I still gave up five runs," Junis said. "It's just something you've got to work towards and keep getting better, and hopefully next time I have my slider again and a little bit better fastball control, and then we can keep the runs off the board and give our team a chance to win."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

Mondesi got hits from both sides of the plate on Tuesday. He ripped a double in the third from the left side off Peralta, and then he smoked a 2-1 sinker from left-hander Dan Jennings to right-center field for his first home run this season. Statcast™ projected it to have traveled 383 feet.

"It was a little sinker running away," Mondesi said of the homer. "I was just trying to stay short to the ball."

UP NEXT

The Royals wrap up the two-game set with the Brewers on Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. CT. In a matchup of two southpaws, Danny Duffy (3-7, 5.18 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals, while Brent Suter (8-4, 4.15 ERA) will pitch for the Brewers. Duffy gave up two hits through six scoreless innings while striking out seven on Friday in Houston.

Perez, Moose remain in top 5 of ASG voting

June 26, 2018By Jordan Wolf/MLB.com

Royals catcher Salvador Perez and third baseman Mike Moustakas both remain near the top of voting in the American League, according to the latest 2018 Camping World MLB All-Star Ballot update released on Tuesday.

Perez and Moustakas are both in the top five at their position in voting for this year's Midsummer Classic in Washington D.C. Perez is seeking his sixth consecutive All-Star bid, and Moustakas is vying for the third of his career and second in a row.

Perez, who sits fourth among AL backstops with 497,711 votes, is tied for third among AL catchers with 11 homers and third in runners caught stealing with 12. Wilson Ramos of the Rays leads the voting with 1,063,708 votes.

Moustakas leads Kansas City with 14 home runs and 48 RBIs, and his .774 OPS ranks second on the club. He currently has 342,607 votes, putting him at fifth among AL third basemen. Moustakas trails leader Jose Ramirez of the Indians by just under a million votes.

Fans may cast votes for starters at MLB.com and all 30 club sites -- on computers, tablets and smartphones -- exclusively online using the 2018 Camping World MLB All-Star Ballot until Thursday, July 5, at 10:59 p.m. CT. On smartphones and tablets, fans can also access the ballot via the MLB At Bat and MLB Ballpark mobile apps. Each fan can vote up to five times in any 24-hour period, for a maximum of 35 ballots cast.

Home runs bite Jakob Junis again as Royals lose to Brewers

June 26, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star

There was once a point early this season, before the Royals lost 19 games in April and well before they fell to 20 games outside of first place in the American League Central division, where starting pitcher Jakob Junis seemed he would be the brightest spot on the roster.

But the last two months, batters have cottoned onto him. After starting the season with a 2.02 ERA, Junis has pitched 69 2/3 innings and allowed 44 earned runs. More often than not, the runs have scored on bases-emptying blasts.

Just like they did on Tuesday, when the Royals lost 5-1 to the Brewers at Miller Park. Junis allowed five runs to score via home runs hit by Christian Yelich, Jesus Aguilar and Ryan Braun. He's allowed a majors-leading 22 home runs this year, 12 of them in five June starts.

"I’m giving up a lot of runs on home runs," said Junis, who now has a 5-9 record and 4.67 ERA. "If I can keep it in the yard, I would have a lot better chance at keeping some runs off the board. But just a couple pitches I’m leaving over the plate are getting handled."

Junis struck out five of the first 10 batters he faced and seven Brewers overall. But he labored from the second inning on. In the end, he allowed seven hits, three of which traveled a combined 1,185 feet and sent Bernie the Brewer down his left-field slide for each.

Junis was so bitten by the homer that when Hernan Perez, a 27-year-old utility player who has hit 63 home runs in his entire professional career, lofted a ball to center field, Junis stepped back off the mound to watch the trajectory. The fly ball died about 50 feet shy of the fence, yet the moment stood as a representation of the biggest challenge Junis has faced this year.

He has strikeout stuff and plays in the zone more often than not. Entering Tuesday’s start, he ranked 14th among qualified starters with 51.5 percent of his pitches registering inside the strike zone. Among those in that group, which is led by the Braves’ Brandon McCarthy (54.9 percent), were the Nationals’ Max Scherzer and the Astros’ Justin Verlander. Each has thrown 52.8 percent strikes and combined have struck out 297 batters.

But Junis, 25, is in the midst of his first full season as a major-league starter. As great as his slider is when it’s effective, it still needs work.

“I think the thing you learn from is you have to execute pitches,” manager Ned Yost said.

That lesson will be learned with time.

And as the Royals, who dropped to 24-55, continue this rebuilding season, they will have plenty of that to go around.

"My stuff hasn’t been consistent but tonight I felt a lot better and I still gave up five runs," Junis said. "It’s just something you’ve got to work towards and keep getting better and hopefully next time I have my slider again and a little bit better fastball control and then we can keep the runs off the board and give our team a chance to win."

Spirit of Buck O'Neil helps NLBM president cope with vandalism

June 26, 2018By Vahe Gregorian/KC Star

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick is about as effervescent and optimistic as a person can be — not to mention passionately dedicated to feeling a calling to be more like Buck O’Neil, the poet laureate of the Negro Leagues, ambassador for baseball and a founding force of the NLBM.

But sometimes even Kendrick labors to reconcile what the world serves up. Vandals on Friday cut a water pipe on the second floor of the Buck O’Neil Research and Education Center in the former Paseo YMCA building that let loose flooding through two floors.

Most likely, the $100,000 parquet floor of what is now a ballroom will have to be replaced, and who knows how much more it will cost to fix the drywall and other damage, and to what degree insurance will cover this.

To say nothing of the emotional ramifications of the mean-spirited act.

“It’s disheartening; it leaves you questioning humanity, and you don’t want to be that way,” Kendrick said Tuesday, managing a laugh and adding, “You want to carry that Buck O’Neil spirit, which is that spirit of forgiveness: As he would always say, ‘I never learned to hate.’

“I am trying to be more Buck-like. I’m not there yet. I am still a work in progress.”

But the delightful man who has extended O’Neil’s legacy, who has helped so many appreciate the treasure that is the NLBM, also is getting some profound reassurance as he considers the impact of this being done to the building where the Negro National League was founded in 1920.

That starts, naturally, with the symbolic intervention — or perhaps some other sway — of Buck himself.

Somehow, the water stopped short of a panoramic exhibition of O’Neil in various stages of his life.

“Buck — undamaged,” Kendrick said, smiling. “The display is standing there in its full glory. It didn’t get touched.”

Which sounds about right for the indestructible heart and soul of O’Neil that Kendrick referred to as he spoke of the impending finish of the project in 2016.

“It’s a building that will certainly perpetuate his memory,” Kendrick said then. “You can’t help but think that ol’ Buck, somewhere in that great somewhere, is smiling looking down at the reality that his dream is not a pipe dream, that it is going to happen.”

So it’s only a pipe nightmare in this moment, Kendrick knows, and even as he processes it and wants to know why and who did it he is beginning to find a way to see something positive in this.

As heartbreaking as it was, the rapid and profound response from the community has been even more inspiring.

Numerous consoling messages on social media have touched Kendrick, no doubt including the one suggesting “love can outweigh the hate” and calling for the NLBM’s 7,000-plus Twitter followers to donate $20 apiece.

Also uplifting have been calls from the city and from the Royals, who asked “what we think our needs are.”

“It’s been heartwarming, the overflowing amount of concern,” said Kendrick, who attributed to “strange coincidence” a water-pipe bursting at the NLBM itself the same night, causing minor damage, and the recent suspicious fire that destroyed the home of the legendary Satchel Paige. “People have already expressed a willingness to want to help, whatever that is, whether it’s with labor or financially.

“It’s the Buck O’Neil spirit. He’s seemingly always brought joy out of despair, and I think that’s what we’ll see here. And (the vandalism) has put (the NLBM and its work) back on the tops of people’s minds. …

“And that’s without a call to action.”

Not a direct one, anyway, and Kendrick is waiting to see if that’s necessary as he awaits a report on the full damage and considers whether this could be covered through NLBM reserves and help from the city, a partner in this, and what insurance might cover.

“I mean, we always need support, and we could always channel it in a different direction, but I don’t want to take people’s money if we don’t have to,” he said. “Because you always want to a good steward of people’s resources.”

pledged by Julia Irene Kauffman at O’Neil’s memorial service.

“We will put Buck’s dream into reality,” she said that day. “Thank God for Buck.”

Moreover, as Kendrick put it, when “Mr. Gates (volunteering as project manager) opened those doors and started the cleaning-up process,” people from all over the community showed up and put on old jeans and hard hats and started moving debris and sweeping and cleaning and doing whatever they could to help out.

“There was so much community pride in this,” Kendrick said, later adding, “Not only do we feel like we were violated, many in the community feel like they were violated to have this happen.”

So Kendrick still can’t help but wonder why, wonder if somebody was angry about something or just spewing venom or who knows what else?

But he knows the answer that matters ultimately is this:

Be more Buck-like. Have a resilient, forgiving heart. Make a way when there is no way. And somehow see the good in this.

“Buck’s spirit still looms very large in this town,” he said, smiling and later adding, "We're not going to let someone derail Bucks' dream."

Another former Royals player will handle this week's Facebook-only game against Brewers

June 26, 2018By Maria Torres/KC Star

The Royals on Wednesday afternoon will play the finale of a two-game series in Milwaukee in a getaway-day matinee scheduled for 1:10 p.m. But to watch, fans will have to rely on their computers or phone or tablet applications.

For the second time this season, the Royals will play a game aired exclusively on Facebook Watch as part of an MLB-wide initiative to make baseball accessible to viewers around the world.

Former Royals pitcher Kris Medlen, who recently retired from baseball after stumbling in an attempt to make a comeback with the Arizona Diamondbacks, will be part of the broadcast crew provided by MLB Network, which also includes Scott Braun and Dan Plesac.

He’s the second former Royals player to take part in a Facebook-only game. Jeremy Guthrie joined Plesac and Braun in mid-April for a Facebook broadcast in Toronto.

“I love the thought of paying it forward,” Medlen said last month in a podcast hosted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien. “I was given so much in terms of coaching and teammates, I just had an unbelievable time that I feel like I need to pay it forward. I don’t know what it will be. I would love to coach or broadcast and talk about baseball, little things like that to keep me busy.”

Wednesday’s game can be accessed on Facebook.com and the Facebook app. Viewers need an account to watch the live-streamed event on their computers or mobile devices. The game will also be broadcast on the Royals radio network, including on KCSP (610 AM).

On Ned Yost, the No. 42, and his biggest mistake while managing the Brewers

June 27, 2018By Rustin Dodd/The Athletic

He was​ fired in the midst​ of a pennant​ race,​ kicked overboard after​ building​ a team from​ the ground​​ up, humiliated in what could’ve been the apex of his career, and yet Royals manager Ned Yost says he would change just one thing about his six seasons in Milwaukee.