TAMPA -- A similar storyline followed the Royals on the road to begin their series in Tampa this week: A whole lot of good pitching -- and just enough offense.
Michael Lorenzen tossed six innings of one-run ball, while the Kansas City bullpen continued its strong stretch of games by keeping a tight lead intact in the back end of the Royals’ 3-1 series-opening win over the Rays on Tuesday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
The story of the Royals’ season so far has been about its pitching, just as it was last season. And it’s the reason the Royals have won seven of their last eight games and are back at .500 (15-15) this season.
Kansas City’s rotation ranks fourth-best in MLB with a 3.28 ERA after Lorenzen’s start Tuesday, and he gave the Royals their sixth quality start in the last nine games. Royals starters have allowed three runs or fewer in 24 of 30 games to start the season, and they’ve allowed one run or fewer in five of their last seven games.
They also lead the Majors in innings pitched at 170 1/3 innings.
That’s a winning recipe, even as the Royals’ offense averages 3.13 runs per game to begin the year.
“Gives you a chance to win games,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “If you’re down early, know you have to chase big numbers, that’s really hard to do, and you put more pressure on yourself.”
Lorenzen worked around trouble throughout his outing, including runners on second and third with two outs in the first inning, a two-out walk in the third inning and a leadoff home run in the fourth inning. But that homer to Junior Caminero was the only run Lorenzen allowed, lowering his season ERA to 3.48 in six starts.
Despite being at 83 pitches to end the fifth inning and Caminero leading off the next inning, Lorenzen still went out for the sixth and responded with a five-pitch frame to end his outing.
“We mixed it up as much as we could,” Lorenzen said. “I knew that they’re swinging the bat 0-0, so [I was] trying to get those early outs. Some of them are going to be hits, but just trying to be efficient and attack the zone with some creativity and some different shapes.”
Angel Zerpa followed with a scoreless seventh, helped by a stellar play from his infielders with Bobby Witt Jr. -- who extended his MLB-best hitting streak to 20 games -- fielding a sharp grounder from Chandler Simpson and Michael Massey contorting his body to get the force out at second base to end the inning.
Zerpa, whom the Royals would like to use as their highest-leverage lefty because of his upper-90s sinker, has had a shaky start to the year, allowing 12 hits and four walks with five of his six inherited runners to score.
What the Royals saw Tuesday night is more what they’re used to from Zerpa, and it came at a good time. They’re still trying to lock down the best bridge relievers to get to their duo at the back end in Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estévez with Hunter Harvey (right teres major strain) still on the injured list.
While the Royals are optimistic Harvey could go on a rehab assignment as early as next week after his bullpens later this week, they still need other relievers to step up in that role, and they have for the most part.
“I hope for Zerpa -- that’s the best outing we’ve seen from him in a while, and we have all the confidence in the world with him,” Quatraro said.
In the eighth, Erceg worked around two hard hits with one out, while Estévez locked up his eighth save of the season in the ninth.
“We could never get anything going,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “The momentum just was kind of in their favor.”
The Royals’ bullpen now ranks ninth-best in MLB with a 3.38 ERA after Tuesday, and the unit will have to continue to step up this week when the Royals call up Noah Cameron to make a spot start for Cole Ragans on Wednesday.
The team is optimistic that Ragans won’t need a stint on the injured list, so the bullpen could be down a reliever to make room for Cameron.
“It’s still early in the season, we’re still struggling a little bit as an offense, but [the pitchers] are doing a pretty good job,” Salvador Perez said. “They love to compete. And it’s less pressure for us. Hopefully they continue to do it like that, and we get better as an offense so we can help them.”