Jac and Vinnie Combine for a Win(nie)
A couple of big lefty hitters hit the ball a long way to pace the Royals to get a sweep in Texas.
I’d love to say that I’m sorry for that headline, but I’m just not. I will never shy away from a terrible rhyme. That’s just who I am. I hope you’ll love me for that anyway. It probably makes it a little bit easier when it comes after another Royals win, especially when it’s one that gives them a sweep in Arlington, which is no easy task for this franchise. And I think it gets just a little bit sweeter when two of the four runs came off home runs from Jac Caglianone after waiting more than two weeks since his debut to see him trot around the bases. All in all, it was a satisfying game and a satisfying series.
Make sure you’re catching Kauffman Corner every Thursday (and Sundays too, but I’m only on Thursdays). Yesterday, we talked quite a bit about Maikel Garcia and his emergence this season. We also dug into what the record needs to be to buy or sell after the break, a non-report report from a New York writer I’d never heard of, Salvy and his need for rest and the outlook on Cole Ragans.
If you’re someone who has believed the Royals could snap out of their doldrums (10-22 in the 32 games since the 16-2 stretch ended), it was because of what we saw this week in Texas. While the Royals haven’t hit home runs all season, they pretty clearly have home run power. The pitching had struggled a bit recently, but I think we have quite a bit of evidence that this is a good pitching staff. If the two can match up at the same time, this is a team that could be very good. I don’t know if they will be for longer than a few games here and there. They have a test coming up this weekend. But I do know that they continued to show their resilience.
In this one, they were faced with something like a bullpen game, though it ended up being a true bulk situation, and they took advantage of it early on. I would love to see the numbers on this (and no, I’m not going to be the one to look them up), but the Royals faced Shawn Armstrong in Wednesday’s game. He faced Salvador Perez, John Rave and Nick Loftin, but I wonder what the success is on an opener who the team saw just the night before. I think there’s something different about being able to do pregame prep work on a pitcher you absolutely know you’re going to see after you’d seen that pitcher the day before.
Jonathan India opened up the game and worked the count to 3-2 before he popped out. Bobby Witt Jr. worked a 3-2 count and walked on the sixth pitch. Maikel Garcia hit a fly ball on a cutter on the edge on the second pitch, so that wasn’t a great at bat. But with Witt on first and two outs, Vinnie Pasquantino saw a four-seamer for a strike and then took three straight balls. He liked the fifth pitch, a four-seamer on the inner edge. And then Armstrong couldn’t quite get far enough inside with the sinker and Pasquantino crushed it.