Jac Caglianone had three hits, one gave the Royals an important cushion, one gave the Royals a short-lived lead, and the last one tied the game in the late innings. The Royals won 7-6.
Grayson Rodriguez had an interesting night for the Angels in this one. He got two of the worst swings I’ve ever seen from John Rave and Carter Jensen, but also allowed three runs in four innings. The first was a Michael Massey home run on a pitch that absolutely would have bounced if Michael hadn’t blasted it to left.
In the top of the third, the Royals loaded the bases on a single and a pair of walks in front of Jac Caglianone. For a minute, I felt in my heart that we were about to see our first Jac slam. Instead, with two strikes, he took a defensive approach and managed to sneak a soft liner into center to drive in two.
On the other side, Lugo retired the first seven batters he faced and looked dominant in doing so. Then he allowed a double on a soft grounder that beat the shift into right field, and things went crazy. He hit the Angels catcher, Tyler Heineman; Wade Meckler bunt singled to load the bases. Lugo had an epic 11-pitch at-bat with Mike Trout before striking him out on a foul tip. However, as we have seen so many times over the last two years, just when the Royals put themselves in position to escape a dangerous inning, they implode. Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel ripped a double into left, tying the game. Then scored to give the Angels the lead when Zach Neto ripped a single to right.
Neither team scored in the fourth, and the Angels decided they couldn’t afford to send Rodriguez back out for the fifth. They turned to left-handed reliever Sammy Peralta. Peralta has a career 5.29 ERA in parts of four seasons and entered tonight’s game with an ERA over 7.00; it didn’t get any lower. Bobby Witt Jr. walked, and Jac came to the plate again.
Nick Loftin and Michael Massey each singled, and it looked like the Royals could have a big inning. But the Royals attempted a double-steal of second and home with Isaac Collins at the plate. Heineman faked a throw to second, and Loftin was fooled, then thrown out.
Lugo blew the lead again in the bottom of the inning. A Heineman single, a Trout double, and another Schanuel line drive to right field tied the game. John Rave made a good throw home to nail Trout, who doesn’t run as well as he used to, at home plate. Jose Cuas came in and managed to stop the bleeding despite a wild pitch and a passed ball on back-to-back pitches.
Isaac Collins led off the sixth with a double; John Rave was tasked with bunting him to third, but still facing the lefty, Josh Rojas and Kyle Isbel both struck out. Alex Lange-xiety got the bottom of the sixth. He struck out Vaughn Grissom on some nasty pitches to start the inning but immediately allowed Josh Lowe to launch a go-ahead home run.
In the top of the seventh, it was the Witt-Caglianone show again. With one out, Witt singled to right. Then Jac smoked one into right and made what looked like a calculated decision* to make the turn and head for second. That drew a throw while at the same time, Bobby had never slowed down around third. Neto was forced to rush a throw home and couldn’t get the job done. Jac ended up going to second anyway on a bad throw. That set a new career-high with his fifth RBI of the night. He advanced to third on a good read of a groundout to short, and then scored on a Michael Massey single.
*Jac said it wasn’t planned during the postgame interview, but why would Bobby be going first-to-home on a routine single to right otherwise?
Holding a fresh lead, Matt Quatraro turned to John Schreiber out of the bullpen. When I am checking a box score for a reliever, I want to see at least one strikeout per inning if I am going to believe it was a strong outing. John got two soft groundouts and a weak infield pop-out to retire the side in order. The box score won’t say it was impressive, but it looked it to me. Nate Pearson got the eighth and continued the dominance he has shown since the Royals acquired him. He struck out a pair while throwing sinkers at 98 and even hitting 100.6 MPH with a four-seamer. Steven Cruz got the ninth and allowed an infield hit to pinch-hitter Jose Siri but otherwise got a pair of soft grounders and struck out Mike Trout looking with 98.5 at (or just above) the top of the zone to earn his fourth save.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but Jac Caglianone, halfway through August, is reminding me of Bobby Witt Jr. in July of 2024, when Bobby announced to the league that he wasn’t just a good hitter but a great one, capable of carrying a team. Jac has more or less single-handedly carried the Royals to each of their last two wins. Bobby had a 276 wRC+ that month, and Jac had a 229 wRC+ heading into tonight’s game, and it went up, though we won’t know by how much until tomorrow. It raised his season wRC+ by four points, for what that’s worth.
If he can keep this up, and you can count on Pearson and Cruz to be good relievers in next year’s bullpen, maybe it becomes more plausible that the Royals could compete after all. Of course, Seth Lugo is going to have to pitch better than a 4,59 ERA, or the Royals will have to replace him and his $20M salary in the rotation.
We’ll be back at it tomorrow when Randy Dobnak (2.00 ERA, 4.90 SIERA) will face off against Angels ace Reid Detmers (4.00 ERA, 3.46 SIERA). It’s another late West Coast game, but the last one of the season, thankfully. See you then.