Seth

Lugo

Lugo piled up six strikeouts on the afternoon while walking two batters. He struggled with his command though, needing 89 pitches to navigate four innings, which caused his early exit. The damage done against him came on a two-run blast by Leody Taveras in the second inning. Lugo got 11 swings and misses on the afternoon, posting a CSW of 31 percent. He wraps up an inconsistent first half with a 4.56 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and an 86/34 K/BB ratio over 104 2/3 innings through his first 19 starts.

Lugo made his own trouble in the first, when he committed the first of the Royals’ three errors on a three-run infield debacle. After that, though, it was mostly just him getting hit hard. A.J. Ewing hit a two-run homer in the second, and Juan Soto delivered a three-run blast in the fourth. It’s the third time this year that Lugo has given up at least seven runs. He’s allowed two earned runs or fewer in 10 of 18 turns, but the blowups have left him with a 4.56 ERA. He’ll face the Orioles on Sunday.

Lugo gave up two homers, two doubles and five singles, but he was able to limit the damage by walking none (though he did hit a batter) and striking out seven. He still hasn’t fanned more than seven in a game this season, but he has now reached that total four times. The quality start tonight was his 10th, yet he has a 3-6 record to show for it. He’ll face his old friends the Mets in New York next week.

Coming into June, Lugo had allowed three homers in a game just twice in his career. Now he’s done it twice this month, as he also gave up three to the Twins three weeks ago. Lugo’s still had more good starts than bad this year, but that he’s given up seven runs twice and five runs twice has inflated his ERA to 4.18. He’ll face the Rays again at home next week.

Well, getting a quality start and win here from Lugo was great. It just oddly came with zero strikeouts. In fact, he only forced four total swings-and-misses and no individual pitch had more than one. He’s never had a start without recording at least one strikeout in his entire big league career and now has just 66 through 85 1/3 innings on the season. He’s scheduled to face the Rays on the road next time out and hopefully he can record one punch out against them.

He’ll get the ball tonight against the Cardinals in what should be a decent return spot. Lugo missed a few days on the concussion injured list after leaving his June 10 start due to a Brandon Nimmo line drive off his head.

Lugo completed a bullpen session on Tuesday without any issues and appears poised to rejoin Kansas City’s rotation later this week. The 36-year-old veteran hit the concussion injured list last Friday after being struck in the head by a comebacker during his previous start against the Rangers.

Lugo is still feeling the effects of getting drilled in the head by a comebacker off the bat of Brandon Nimmo during his last start. While the Royals were hopeful that he would be able to take his next turn through the rotation, he’ll need to pass through the concussion protocol first before he’s cleared to return.

Fantasy managers should anticipate the possibility that Lugo misses a start or is pushed back a few days after he left yesterday’s game, where he was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Brandon Nimmo. He also mentioned that his left elbow is sore from falling. All and all, this is a positive update considering how scary the injury looked in the moment.

Lugo somehow managed to walk off the field after being struck directly in the head by a 106.6 mph line drive from Rangers outfielder Brandon Nimmo, his former longtime teammate with the Mets. He left the contest after allowing one run over 3 1/3 innings. The 36-year-old veteran righty will undergo further evaluation and testing for a possible concussion. There should be an update on his status after the contest.