Royals Rumblings - News for April 24, 2024

It’s Paul Skenes Day in Omaha, if anyone is free at 11

Omaha readers: are you free later this morning? Paul Skenes is scheduled to start for Indianapolis against the Storm Chasers at 11:05 a.m. Omaha will try to be the first Triple-A lineup to score any runs off the prospect.

Anne Rogers on last night’s good break that cleared the way for a win:

The Royals had been outscored 19-10 over their three-game losing streak, but there wasn’t much panic given what the Royals had done at the start of the season. They entered Tuesday with a plus-36 run differential, which ranked third in the Majors. The Royals have been smoking the ball, and struck out just twice against the American League’s reigning strikeout leader Tuesday, but the lineup has been searching for results for the past two weeks.

Finally against the Blue Jays, they caught a break and started rolling again. The bullpen came up big with 4 2/3 scoreless innings after starter Michael Wacha labored through 4 1/3 innings. He needed 96 pitches to get 13 outs, but Chris Stratton got him out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and tossed a shutdown sixth inning after the Royals took the lead. James McArthur nailed down the six-out save — and the Royals stopped their losing streak in its tracks.

Two vital Bark in the Park tweets:

For MLB players, “show” is now an adjective. What does it mean?

The difference in belt type and quality between the minors and the bigs is another example of show. Big-league belts are usually made of leather (more show), while belts in the low minors and college are often a stretchier, elastic material.

“Hunter Dozier actually wore an elastic belt in the bigs because he thought it was more comfortable,” [Vinnie] Pasquantino remembered. “That’s actually so show — playing in the belt you want.”

Old Friend Alerts: the Rangers signed Johnny Cueto, who is 38. The Nationals called up Jacob Barnes. Tyler Zuber signed with the Long Island Ducks, which is a roster that by my count now contains eight former Royals.

The Red Sox got the bad news that first baseman Triston Casas will be out for a while with a rib fracture.

At FanGraphs, Jay Jaffe runs down all the ways the Dodgers are struggling so far this season.

The Senate passed the bill that could ultimately ban TikTok in a year if parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest from it. I read a scholarly article somewhere (aka watched a TikTok) that stated US-based users make up only like 2% of the app’s traffic, so they might not be all that concerned with it. I would miss my scholarly articles if the app went away.

Fans of Madonna are suing her over extremely late concert starts, and apparently it’s not the first time this has happened.

How to check a used vehicle’s VIN history. Today’s 1st OT question: have you ever bought a car from somewhere other than a dealership? How did it work out?

This poor Ask a Manager letter writer feels crippling guilt about taking even a day of paid time off. I hope they find peace and the ability to use the benefits to which they’re entitled.

Today’s 2nd: OT: what kind of PTO does your workplace offer? Do you ever feel bad about using it?

SOTD: Madonna - Like a Virgin