SAD NEWS: Kansas city royals talented player George Brett was suspended today indefinitely for two weeks.

SAD NEWS: Kansas city royals talented player George Brett was suspended today indefinitely for two weeks.

The way I understdand it, the bone just got cracked a little bit, but nothing that requires surgery or anything,” Quatraro said. “I don’t think there’s a need to wear anything [like a protective shield]. It’s almost like getting punched in the face when there’s swelling or a black eye. You’ve got to get it down.”.

“I’ve had this (injury) a lot and have a pretty good experience with it,” Massey said after Friday’s game. “Kind of know when we need to go and when we need to pull the plug.”.

“We think the world of Nick,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We think he is going to be a really good major-league player. The opportunity hasn’t been there yet on a consistent basis and we will see how he mixes in here.”

I do want to point out one thing before I just get to the games. There’s been a lot made about the Royals record against teams .500 or better. I think, at this point in the season, it’s a silly conversation. But I wanted to address something that was driving me nuts. Let’s take a look at four teams – Tampa Bay, Toronto, Detroit and Houston. The Royals are 2-1, 5-2, 4-2 and 3-0 respectively against them. With their current 34-20 record, the Royals are 6-9 against teams .500 or better.

And I’ve seen a lot of people dinging them for only playing 15 of 54 games against “good” teams. But if their records were reversed against those four teams, all four would be over .500. Suddenly, their 15 games become 34 games and they’re 11-23, but they’re 25-29 overall. They’re the reason those teams are under .500!

Even more of the Royals’ success is due to Lugo blossoming into an ace at 34 years old. Unlike Crochet and Gilbert’s cutters, Lugo barely uses his — about 3.3% of the time. But, as Brozdowski pointed out, Lugo’s jump in strikeouts beginning with his sixth start of the year coincided with using his cutter against right-handed hitters after throwing it only against lefties earlier in the season. The mere knowledge of a pitch’s existence can drastically change the calculus of a hitter, and Lugo is now playing in rare territory with his arsenal. He throws three fastballs (four-seamer, sinker, cutter), three sliders (traditional, sweeper, slurve), a curveball (the best in the big leagues) and a changeup. Now, after spending most of his career as a reliever, Lugo leads the American League in innings per start and would be right there with Detroit’s Tarik Skubal in first-two-months AL Cy Young voting.