Anthony Kay scuffles in loss against Royals

Kay walked one and struck out two batters in the ballgame. The Cardinals scratched out a run against him in each of his first three innings of work. The 31-year-old southpaw got just one swing and miss on 67 pitches in the contest, posting an uninspiring CSW of 21 percent. He’ll try to bounce back as he carries a 4.53 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a 118/51 K/BB ratio (145 innings) into Wednesday’s critical divisional matchup against the Guardians in Cleveland.

Kay gave up six hits, walked one and struck out three. He fell to 9-8 with the loss. Kay has now allowed 14 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings (9.55 ERA) over his last three starts. His 3.96 ERA prior to that stretch has increased to 4.47 on the season. Kay is lined up to face the Cardinals on the road next weekend.

Kay gave up six hits, walked two and struck out five. He fell to 9-7 with the loss. Kay has now allowed 10 runs combined and failed to complete five innings in either of his last two starts. He has a 4.28 ERA. Kay is lined up to face the Twins at home this weekend.

Kay gave up six hits, walked two and struck out four. He entered play Tuesday with a 2.66 ERA in four August starts. Kay wasn’t quite as sharp against the Rangers as even with an 8-1 lead he couldn’t complete the fifth inning. He has a 4.09 ERA this year. Kay is lined up to face the Astros on the road next week.

Kay struck out six and walked one. He allowed one run through six before giving up a double to Michael Harris II to start the seventh and immediately being lifted afterwards. Harris later came around to score. Kay has given up three runs or fewer in nine straight starts, going 3-3 with a 3.23 ERA during the span. He’ll take his next turn Tuesday against the Rangers.

Kay surrendered a run in the first inning on a walk and two hits. Eduardo Valencia later took Kay deep for a solo homer in the fourth inning before a pair of doubles scored a third run in the fifth. Kay recorded the first out in the sixth and departed at 86 pitches with four strikeouts. The 31-year-old left-hander will take a 4.01 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and a 98/44 K/BB ratio across 121 1/3 innings into a start against the Braves in Chicago on Thursday.

Kay and Gavin Williams matched zero-for-zero for the first five innings, but Kay blinked first with a two-run homer allowed in the sixth to Rhy Hoskins. It turned into a no-decision with the White Sox also getting a pair off Williams in the sixth. The southpaw struck out four against one walk, and his ERA has dipped below 4.00 to 3.96. That’s now seven straight starts where Kay has not allowed more than three runs, and a chance to make it eight comes Friday in Detroit against the Tigers.

In both the fourth and sixth innings, the Rays were able to string together three hits against Kay, but they were all singles and none produced any runs. Kay improved to 8-5 with a 4.01 ERA. He’s certainly not overwhelming anyone, but he’s gone six straight starts without allowing more than three runs. He’ll face the Guardians next weekend.

If you take away the second inning, Kay was excellent. You cannot legally do that, and the southpaw allowed three runs in that frame; three more than Gerrit Cole allowed in his six innings, so it’s the fifth loss of the season for the 31-year-old southpaw. Still, this outing was better than the box score might suggest, and this was the first time in five starts that Kay has allowed more than two runs in an outing. He’ll be back on the bump Sunday against the Rays if there’s no change to the rotation order for Chicago.

This was a laborious five innings from Kay. After giving up a home run in the second, he put runners in scoring position in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings. The most stressful of those was the fourth when he loaded the bases with zero outs and somehow escaped with just one run scoring. It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done and forced 15 whiffs in the process. That was tied for the second-most in a single game in his career. One other time where he forced at least 15 whiffs was way back in 2021. Otherwise, the other three have come in his last eight starts. Next up, he’s scheduled for a two-start week against the Yankees at home and Rays on the road.