Jonathan Heasley Comments on Disastrous Start vs. Guardians

The 2022 MLB season has certainly not gone to plan for the Kansas City Royals as they sit far out of playoff contention with a dismal 31-52 record. Starting pitcher Jonathan Heasley's disastrous performance against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday was yet another bump in the road.

Royals RHP Jonathan Heasley: "I felt pretty normal in the bullpen. I don't know what my velo was (in the 'pen). But once I got out there and was seeing 88-89, I knew something wasn't really right. Because everything felt normal on my end... Hopefully, it's just a little fatigue."
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) July 9, 2022

Kansas City Royals News

Heasley gave up six runs (five earned) on six hits and a hit batter across 1.1 innings of work. He took the loss in what ended up being a 13-1 defeat, which dropped his record to 1-5 on the season. The 25-year-old has now allowed at least five runs in two of his last three starts, ballooning his ERA to 5.50.

After the game, Heasley explained to reporters that he noticed his velocity was down right away in the first inning. While everything felt normal on his end, something was clearly wrong. The Royals have since placed Heasley on the 15-day injured list with tendinitis in his pitching shoulder.

Manager Mike Matheny called the issue "a little bit of a dead arm" and Heasley will now have time to rest before returning after the All-Star break. Left-hander Foster Griffin was called up from Triple-A to take the open roster spot. He has logged a 1.93 ERA across 20 relief appearances with Omaha in 2022.

The Royals will look to create some positive momentum when they start a four-game series against the divisional rival Detroit Tigers on Monday afternoon. Kansas City remains a long shot to win the World Series with odds set at +250000, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Larry Rupp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Larry Rupp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username phillyfan424. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

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