The Royals didn’t waste any time turning a bad start into a loud night at the plate.
Jeff McNeil opened the game by taking Michael Wacha deep on the first pitch, but Kansas City answered in a hurry and kept pouring it on from there, beating the Athletics 9-5 as Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia returned from the injured list.
Garcia made his presence felt right away. After Bobby Witt Jr. walked and Jac Caglianone singled to put two runners aboard, both moved up on a wild pitch.
Garcia then lined a single to right to bring Witt home, and when the throw went toward the plate, Garcia advanced to second. Pasquantino followed with a weak flyout in his first plate appearance back, but Salvador Perez cleaned it up with a two-run hit that pushed the Royals ahead 3-1.
That lead held, and unlike some other nights, Kansas City kept stretching it.
In the second, Kyle Isbel drew a walk before Carter Jensen nearly added another blast, sending a ball high toward the right-field bullpen before Lawrence Butler caught it at the fence. Witt made sure the inning still mattered. Facing Mason Barnett, the former Royals starter, he drilled a two-run homer to left-center to make it 5-1.
The offense kept working in the third, when a long inning filled with pitchcom delays ended with the bottom of the order piecing together a single, a walk, and another single to bring in another run and chase Barnett from the game with Kansas City up 6-1.
Wacha was in control for most of the night after the opening homer, but the fifth inning changed the feel fast. Tommy White led off with a homer on a pitch up in the zone.
Donovan Walton nearly followed with another long ball that bounced off the fence in left-center. Alika Williams then sent a deep fly to the warning track before Caglianone hauled it in, and Brian Serven added a homer into the left-field bullpen to cut the Royals’ lead to 6-4.
Wacha finished the inning, but his night was done after five frames and four runs allowed.
The Athletics kept nudging back at the Royals against former Kansas City pitcher Scott Blewett in the sixth, but Witt and Caglianone answered again. Witt singled, stole second for his 33rd steal of the season, then scored on a two-out flare from Caglianone into right field to make it 7-4.
Kansas City added insurance in the eighth. Jensen and Witt ripped back-to-back doubles, and Caglianone followed with another single to bring home another run and make it 9-4. Witt was all over the ball all night.
Connor Thomas, John Schreiber, and Nate Pearson each handled a scoreless inning out of the bullpen to steady things before the ninth got messy. With a 9-4 lead, Lucas Erceg entered and didn’t record an out, loading the bases with a single and two walks. Steven Cruz came in, allowed a run, and then closed it out with a double play and a groundout.
Kansas City finished with 13 hits and went 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Witt, Caglianone, and Garcia drove the offense, while Pasquantino and Perez added to the damage in the return game. Isaac Collins was the only Royals hitter without a hit, though he did reach on a walk.
In Other News...
Jac Caglianone's Early Exit Just Put Royals Fans On Edge
Jac Caglianone gave the Royals at least one more positive note before things turned uneasy Wednesday, extending his on-base streak to 17 games before leaving the game in the fifth inning. The official club update said the move came because of right ankle soreness, and Kansas City turned to a pinch hitter in his place as the outfield picture suddenly got more complicated.
For a player who has been giving the lineup a steady presence lately, any midgame exit is enough to raise alarms, especially when the concern involves a lower-body issue. The Royals now have to wait for more clarity on what happened and how much time, if any, Caglianone might miss, leaving the rest of the night to be remembered less for the streak than for the uneasy walk back to the dugout. [Read more 🡒]
Eric Hosmer Opens Up About The Royals Cores Emotional Final Night
The Royals spent much of the 2017 season hanging around the wild-card picture before the year slipped away and ended below .500, but the final game still carried a weight that went beyond the standings. Ned Yost pulled four core players from the 2015 World Series group late in the season finale, and they walked off the field together one last time, a small scene that captured how much of that era was still tied to the same faces.
Eric Hosmer later said on a podcast that the night did not end when the game did. He and Danny Duffy remained in the clubhouse with other players and their families, turning the finale into a kind of reunion as they reminisced and celebrated with a signed bottle of cognac, a fitting touch for a group that knew the chapter was closing even if the broader story was still being written. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Fans Can Trace Todays Depth Problem Back To 2018
When the Royals started stockpiling compensatory picks in 2018, the idea was clear enough: use that extra draft capital to restock a system that needed arms and build toward a sturdier future. Kansas City leaned heavily into college pitching, hoping the safer path would speed up the rebuild and create a pipeline of useful big league pieces. Some of the selections did help in pockets, and the class did produce a bit of value for the organization.
Eight years later, though, the broader picture is harder to spin. Most of those pitchers never turned into long-term major leaguers, and the list of real holdovers from that class is thin. A few names, including Kyle Isbel and Daniel Lynch IV, stand out as exceptions, but the larger issue remains the same: the Royals have spent years trying to solve a depth problem that traces back to the limitations of that draft haul and the way the organization handled the player pipeline afterward. [Read more 🡒]