Royals fans’ sleep schedules rejoice at the end of another West Coast road trip.
David Lesky talks about just how great the San Francisco Giants’ starter Robbie Ray was against the Kansas City Royals on Monday.
Last night was another intense and competitive game for the Royals in one of the best pitchers’ duels we’ve seen this season. Coming in, it looked like it had the potential to be that and neither Kris Bubic nor Robbie Ray disappointed. For the Royals offense, it’s a little difficult to credit the opposing pitcher, no matter who it is, because of how bad they’ve been, particularly lately. But Ray was absolutely outstanding for the Giants. I honestly don’t remember the last time his control was as sharp as we saw last night. Is that because he wasn’t afraid to throw in the zone? Maybe, but he threw 57 percent of his pitches in the zone, which is way higher than his 44 percent zone rate coming in. And the Royals offense struggled. They had just six hits with five of them singles. The only extra base hit was a double by Bobby Witt Jr. as the second batter of the game. While the Royals didn’t capitalize on a chance to maybe get one or two across with the baserunners he allowed, I think the ineptitude was a lot more about the opposing pitcher than about their offense. At least for one game. It’s tough to make a distinction when the offense has struggled against everyone, but sometimes the opponent is just better and that’s what they dealt with in Ray last night.
Craig Brown reminds fans how much Monday’s baserunning was more of the same for these Royals.
Witt put a charge into a changeup. It left the bat at 101.9 mph. A line drive. Everthing about the process was perfect. The only thing that was wrong was that it was hit right at the shortstop. I seriously doubt that Kyle Isbel would’ve been able to get back to second base, had he made the proper baserunning move and froze on the line drive. Instead, for whatever reason, he broke for third. So he probably was out anyway, but kind of inexplicably doubled down and decided to TOOTBLAN in style.
Hear from Royals general manager J.J. Picollo on the decision to promote top prospect Jac Caglianone to Triple-A Omaha. [$]
Caglianone hit for a .322 average with nine home runs and 43 RBIs with the Class AA Naturals. He also drew 19 walks and had a .947 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 152 at-bats. In short, he was ready for this step up to the Storm Chasers. “We said all along we want to be patient with him and let him continue to develop as a hitter,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “We just felt it reached a point where it wasn’t going to help him as much to be in Double-A. It’s time to get him to Triple-A with a new challenge.”
The first big blunder from FanDuel Sports Kansas City (this season) happened at the worst time on Monday. [$]
So one might have expected Royals fans to be thrilled when Vinnie Pasquantino crushed a two-run homer Monday night in the eighth inning of KC’s 3-1 win at San Francisco. Unfortunately for many fans watching, however, they didn’t get to see the Pasquatch go deep. FanDuel Sports Kansas City had technical difficulties at the worst possible time. “Last night we had a technical issue at the TV truck in San Francisco that caused an outage during the Royals-Giants game,” FanDuel Sports said. “The issue was diagnosed quickly and a fix was made to restore the feed. The outage lasted approximately six minutes.”
The Athletic dropped Kansas City one spot in their latest power rankings, but they looked at Maikel Garcia’s breakout year at the plate. [$]
Do you realize — or more accurately, do you believe — we’re finally seeing that Maikel Garcia breakout year? I’ve been a low-grade Garcia believer for a couple of years now, despite the fact he has never finished a season with an OPS higher than .711 (it was .614 last year). His Baseball Savant page is a source of bewilderment and wonder to me. How can a hitter rank in the 29th percentile in Barrel percentage, but in the 93rd percentile in Squared-Up percentage? In what world does it make sense that he is in the 45th percentile for Bat Speed, but the 84th percentile for Average Exit Velocity? I imagine that Eno Sarris could explain this to me. But frankly, there are so few avenues for wonder in this world that I almost don’t want to know. For now, it’s good enough to check in and see that Garcia has been the Royals’ fourth-most valuable player by bWAR (1.6), just below Michael Wacha and just ahead of last year’s second-place AL Cy Young Award finisher Seth Lugo. His OPS entering Monday night? .853, which looks a lot like a breakout to me.
Bleacher Report has the Cincinnati Reds trading for one former Royals pitcher as the club’s biggest offseason mistake.
For the most part, Cincinnati’s starting rotation has been on point, the quartet of Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo and Nick Martinez entering play on Sunday with a cumulative 3.00 ERA through 180 innings pitched. But then there’s Brady Singer, saddled with a 5.01 ERA in his first nine starts after Cincinnati gave up Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer to get him. The offense tends to be awesome when he takes the mound, though, scoring at least five runs in eight of his nine starts, resulting in a 5-2 record. But his production has been replacement level to this point.
Manager Matt Quatraro earned his sixth MLB ejection in quick fashion on Monday night, and we have some more context as to why. [$]
In case you needed more proof of how dominant Kris Bubic’s outing on Monday was, Royals Director of Media Relations Nick Kappel has you covered.
Pitchers who’ve allowed ≤1 run in a 4-start span (min. 25.0 IP) within the same season, @Royals history:
B. Saberhagen, Sept. 17-30, 1989 (won Cy Young)
K. Appier, Aug. 28-Sept. 18, 1993 (3rd in Cy Young)
Z. Greinke, April 8-24, 2009 (won Cy Young)
KRIS BUBIC, May 3-19, 2025— Nick Kappel (@NickKappel) May 20, 2025
Kansas City Star columnist Sam McDowell and Vahe Gregorian chat about the latest stadium updates on the newest SportsBeat KC.
Caglianone is already getting AL Rookie of the Year votes before making his Triple-A debut.
Carlos Santana is apparently wearing shorts in Cleveland? Pebble Hunting proves it isn’t against the regulations though.
ESPN breaks down the surprising starts from teams around the league.
Juan Soto’s less-than-stellar effort continues to take center stage for the New York Mets.
Baltimore Orioles general manager Mike Elias spoke about his next steps after dismissing manager Brandon Hyde.
Chicago White Sox slugger Luis Robert Jr. talks about his 2025 struggles ahead of the trade deadline.
The check swing challenge system is making its in-season debut down in Florida.
MLB’s Rivalry Weekend seems like a rousing success.
The White Sox have a new landmark honoring where now-Pope Leo XIV sat for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series.
NFL players will be center stage in Olympic flag football come 2028.
Could Scottie Scheffler be the next Grand Slam man?
Famous horse trainer Larry Demeritte passed away at age 75.
Thousands of abandoned chicks have overwhelmed a Delaware animal shelter after a shipment of 12,000 birds was discovered in a mail distribution center.
An actress known for her work in Blair Witch Project is once again finding trouble in the woods, this time in real life.
How can you try to sell a multi-million-dollar toilet and not go to jail? A British man did just that.