Thunder pull away from Lakers again to take 3-0 series lead
Thunder pull away from Lakers again, leading series 3-0 in playoffs!
The Royals secured a 5-1 victory, highlighted by Michael Wacha's impressive seven shutout innings. Despite scoring five runs on only six hits, the team's offense benefited from fortunate sequencing and base-running luck.
Coming into 2026, Michael Wacha had been the epitome of consistency for the Royals. If you saw he was starting, you could mark down ~6 innings and a couple of runs scored pretty much every time. Every once in a while, heâd get torched, slightly more often than that, heâd pitch a gem. 2026 has been different, though, at least in terms of what we can consistently expect from the 34-year-old.
Wacha made his eighth start tonight and pitched seven shutout innings. If you look at it primarily from an innings-pitched perspective, half of those starts have been 7+ innings with 2 or fewer runs allowed. If you focus on the runs-allowed perspective, heâs thrown 3 games where he didnât give up a run and all were at least 6 innings. No matter how you slice it, 3/4 of his outings have been Quality Starts, allowing 3 runs or fewer and pitching 6 runs or more. None of those quality starts saw him give up more than 2 runs. Itâs been a remarkable stretch. I keep meaning to dedicate a full article to describing how well he has pitched and why, but other things keep coming up. Now Iâm a bit afraid to jinx him. But we can praise him liberally in this space, as we have had reason to do all year.
Matt Strahm pitched the eighth and gave up a run on two hits and a strikeout. It happens. Better to happen when youâre pitching with a five-run lead. Steven Cruz was given the ninth inning. In his first outing since he was demoted, Cruz looked like the guy we saw for so much of last year. He struck out a pair in a clean inning. It would be very nice to be able to slot him into the late-innings picture with Strahm, Daniel Lynch IV, and Lucas Erceg.
The Royalsâ offense scored five runs, but I think we have to admit they got a little lucky with that. They did it on only 6 hits and 2 walks. The only way you accomplish that is with very good sequencing, which requires a fair bit of luck. Thatâs especially true when you take into account that they ran into 3 outs on the bases. Meaning they reached base 8 times, scored 5, and ran into bad outs 3 times. Thatâs a bit silly.
Michael Wacha pitched seven shutout innings, marking a strong performance with no runs allowed.
The Royals won the game with a final score of 5-1.
The Royals' offense scored five runs due to effective sequencing and some luck, despite running into three outs on the bases.
Matt Strahm pitched the eighth inning, allowing one run, while Steven Cruz pitched a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts.
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After Wacha pitched a very efficient first inning, the Royals decided to do some efficient scoring in the bottom of the inning. Maikel Garcia smoked a double into the left-center gap on the second pitch from opener and old friend Burch Smith. Bobby Witt Jr. smoked the third pitch he saw just fair down the first base line. It seemed a sure RBI double, but Kerry Carpenter whiffed on his attempt to cut the ball off, and it shot around the corner and into right field as balls like that often do. It became an inside-the-park home run for Bobby, his fifth dinger of the year.
Vinnie singled to right ahead of a Salvy flyout, and Smith was pulled for lefty Tyler Holton to face Carter and Cags. Carter Jensen hit a ball down the left field line that he and Vinnie hustled into a double, but Jac Caglianone hit a grounder to the right side, and Carter took off for third, allowing the Tigers to throw behind him. Eventually, Vinnie was tagged out heading for home.
In the fourth inning, after bulk man Ty Madden had come in, Salvy made another out, and Carter and Cags each singled to put runners at first and third with one out. Lane Thomas struck out swinging on a fastball down the middle, but Michael Massey picked him up.
Watching live, I thought that one had a chance to split the outfielders. But it kept not dropping, and I became convinced it was going to be caught. But then I saw the outfielders didnât seem to be setting up to catch it, and it finally became a home run! It turns out that Massey smoked it at 103.9 MPH. Go watch that swing at that pitch above and tell me that looks like 104 off the bat. If youâre wondering why Massey plays, thatâs why. Heâs got some easy power for a middle infielder.
And those are all of the hits the Royals had. So, yeah, sequencing wins. So many of the Royalsâ home runs this year have come with the bases empty. If the Royals had led 2-0 instead of 5-0, who knows how different the energy would have been and whether the Tigers might have been able to mount a comeback. But it was 5-0, the energy was completely sapped out of the Tigers, and the Royals won.
That guarantees the Royals a winning homestand. That gives them their third straight winning homestand or road trip. That, my friends, is how you make up ground. If the Royals lose tomorrow, remember that hit sequencing matters for scoring runs, but it doesnât matter what order the wins come in and if youâd have been excited if the Royals lost Friday night and won the next two, be excited for the record following the homestand being a step better. If you need another way to understand it, the Royals are not only second in the division following this win, theyâre firmly in the third AL Wild Card spot. Thatâs how ridiculous the season has been in the AL so far. This isnât nearly over.
Of course, the Royals do have a chance to complete the sweep for the third straight weekend tomorrow. The game will be on NBCâs Sunday Night Baseball once again, scheduled at 6:20 KC time. Noah Cameron (5.40 ERA) will take the mound again after being cleared from his back tightness. The Tigers originally planned to have Framber Valdez go, but heâs currently serving a suspension for throwing at a player and inciting a brawl earlier this week. Theyâve still got TBA listed on MLB, and I canât find any rumors anywhere else. So your guess is as good as mine. Fingers crossed the Royals score a bunch of runs regardless.