Jac Caglianone was the first Royal to get 12 or more total bases in a game since Lorenzo Cain had his three-home run game against the Yankees on May 10, 2016 and the Royals won 6-3. It was also the first time a Royal had hit four extra-base hits in a game since Kendrys Morales’ three-home run, one triple game on September 20, 2015 against the Tigers. All four balls were hit at 104.9 MPH or harder; he had the two hardest-hit balls in the game on either team, both over 111 MPH. Funnily enough, only two were considered “barreled” having the wrong launch angle to be considered nearly perfectly hit. It didn’t matter.
Let’s talk about the pitching really quick so we can celebrate Jac’s terrific night some more. Seth Lugo’s control was much better tonight, he only walked 1 and struck out 5 while allowing 3 runs in 6 innings for a definitional quality start, his fourth out of his last five. John Schreiber got the seventh and worked around a pair of two-out walks to escape with what was then a one-run lead intact. He also struck out a pair. Steven Cruz got the eighth because it was the middle of the Cubs’ order and worked around a two-out double for a scoreless inning including a strikeout. Nate Pearson got his first opportunity at a save since joining the Royals and worked around a leadoff double to get the job done. He even struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong to finish things, his second of the inning.
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Jac Caglianone got things started early and impressively, giving the Royals a first inning lead:
That was Jac’s longest home run so far this year at 448 feet. In the bottom of the second, Michael Massey led off with a single and John Rave walked to put runners at first and second with no outs. Nick Loftin sacrifice bunted, which is a ridiculous thing to do in the second inning, but it ended up paying off when Josh Rojas singled both runners home.
In the bottom of the third, Bobby Witt Jr. reached base on an infield single to Alex Bregman right before Jac Caglianone ripped a sweeper down into the right field corner for an RBI double. Clay Holmes finally had a scoreless fourth, but by then the Royals had thoroughly ruined is Cubs debut and Colin Rea came in to pitch the remainder of the game.
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Jac Caglianone added a double off the top of the left field wall in the bottom of the fifth but couldn’t score. As noted, Lugo gave up three runs over the course of the game, so we entered the bottom of the seventh with the Royals clinging to a 4-3 lead despite an inning from the leaky bullpen. Carter Jensen got a leadoff walk and Jac Caglianone came through again.
The bullpen ultimately didn’t allow any runs, but it sure felt a lot better in the eighth and ninth with those insurance runs protecting the lead. Jac hit a sinker, a sweeper, a changeup, and a cutter in his four at-bats. Both his home runs were to center, the doubles were down either line. There were just absolutely no answers for the Cubs.
Let’s not ignore Bobby Witt Jr’s ridiculous defensive play in all the Jac hype, though:
When Bobby and Jac are both going good, you almost don’t need anyone else in the lineup. The wins and losses don’t matter at this point in the season, but wins are always more fun and watching the young studs do impressive things only makes it better.
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The Royals will try to win the series tomorrow afternoon. Randy Dobnak (1.16 ERA, 5.16 SIERA) will face off against Matthew Boyd (3.49 ERA, 4.09 SIERA). The game, as ever, will be aired on Royals.TV. It would be pretty fun if the Royals could take 2 out of 3 from the Cubs after Chicago went hard into the deadline and the Royals seemed to sleep in.
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