Royals falter in I-70 matchup
KC loses third straight series
Despite salvaging a win on Sunday, that was a very bad, no good weekend for the Kansas City Royals as they dropped 2 of 3 against their in-state rivals. Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the Cardinals was about as dispiriting as it gets for anyone hoping to see the Royals offense get going.
Let’s take a quick look back at the St. Louis series, look ahead to this week’s road trip, and dive in to a couple of BIG moves in the Royals farm system…
THE GOOD
The bright spot of the weekend was Noah Cameron. The rookie lefthander was pressed into another spot start (more on that later) on Saturday and responded brilliantly. Again.
Cameron threw 6 1/3 innings allowing only 2 hits and 1 ER. Unfortunately that 1 run was all the Cardinals needed as the KC offense once again wet the bed. Cameron has now made 2 starts in place of injured pitchers and has tossed 12 2/3 innings of 1 run ball.
With injuries mounting in the KC rotation, Cameron is suddenly a very valuable commodity.
Sunday’s starter Michael Wacha was good…enough. As Ryan and Denny talked about on the radio broadcast, it was an odd game. A 2-1 game might sound like a pitcher’s duel but there were baserunners all over the diamond most of the day.
Wacha went 5 innings, giving up 8 hits and 1 earned run, and importantly not allowing any walks. Four KC relievers followed to secure the win as the Cardinals stranded 13 runners in the game.
The other weekend bright spot was JJ Picollo finally cutting ties with reliever Chris Stratton and his 7.94 ERA. The two year, $8M contract Picollo signed Stratton to before the 2024 season was a disaster, and it’s good that they finally decided to just eat the rest of the money they owe him. Hopefully they are willing to apply the same thinking to Hunter Renfroe’s contract. The Royals replaced Stratton on the roster with reliever Jonathan Bowlan.
THE BAD
The KC offense plated a total of 5 runs in the 3 game series. The Royals lost a game in which their pitchers gave up a total of 2 hits and allowed 0 walks. What more can you say?
They’ve dropped to 27th in baseball in WRC+ (81), ahead of only the 14-33 White Sox (77), the 15-32 Pirates (72), and the 8-38 (!) Rockies (67). The team OBP has slipped back below the .300 mark (.298), and they have hit the fewest (30) home runs in baseball. They don’t strike out much, but KC hitters are also dead last in BB% at 6.9%.
There haven’t been any reports of cracks forming in the Royals clubhouse, but the guys in the rotation have to be desperate for some run support.
In Saturday night’s game, second baseman Jonathan India was spiked on a dirty slide by Wilson Contreras of the Cardinals. There’s zero question that it was deliberate, Contreras came in with his spikes high and aimed at India, not the base….
India missed Sunday’s game and is “day to day” with a knee contusion. It was dirty as hell, and even world-famous nice guy Rex Hudler called it “classless” on the television broadcast. Even worse, the Royals made no attempt to retaliate.
That kind of slide should absolutely earn a guy a fastball in the ribs, but the Matt Quatraro-led Royals did nothing. Remember the 2015 Royals? After their success in 2014, other teams tried this stuff early on in 2015 until Yordano Ventura et al made it clear it would not be tolerated. They didn’t call them the “Fightin’ Royals” for nothing folks. And guess who was at the K on Saturday watching the 2025 Royals just roll over? That’s right, nearly every member of that 2015 squad.
Maybe the 2025 Royals need a bench-clearing brawl or two to cleanse their aura, I remember the 2015 team ended up doing pretty well…
THE UGLY
Speaking of the guys in the rotation, 40% of them are now on the 15 day injured list. Cole Ragans exited Friday’s start with a recurrence of the left groin injury that caused him to miss an earlier start. Saturday’s starter, Seth Lugo, was scratched before the game with a finger strain and both Ragans and Lugo landed on the injured list.
The Royals called up Cameron and left-handed reliever Evan Sisk to fill their spots on the active roster. Cameron will continue to start of course, and the Royals may try to get through the next week or two with a couple of bullpen games.
I fully admit to burying the lede in this post. By far the biggest Royals news of the weekend was the promotion of #1 prospect Jac Caglianone from AA Northwest Arkansas to AAA Omaha. In 38 AA games, Cags hit .322 with a .947 OPS, 9 HRs, and 43 RBI. His strikeout rate was a very acceptable 21.1%, and he walked at a 10.8% clip.
I can’t wait to see how he fares at AAA. Before the season I said he would be in KC by Aug. 1, unless he tanks at Omaha it’s going to be the All-Star break if not sooner. My biggest concern is the offense continuing to suck out loud and the Royals bringing up Cags to be the savior, that’s too much pressure for even a guy as polished as Caglianone.
Cags’s AAA career will start on the road tomorrow against the Salt Lake Bees, the AAA affiliate of the LA Angels. We’ll be watching.
Cags wasn’t the only Royals notable prospect on the move over the weekend. Kansas City also promoted their #12 prospect, LHP Frank Mozzicato, from High A Quad Cities to AA NW Arkansas. Mozzicato was drafted by the Royals out of high school in 2021 with the 7th overall pick.
He fell off the radar a bit the last couple of years, but an uptick in velocity and a 1.24 ERA in 7 starts for Quad Cities has his arrow pointing back in the right direction. Mozzicato is still only 21 years old, it’s a bit early to tell if he will make a major league rotation piece or not.
UP NEXT
The Royals hit the road this week for 3 games with the San Francisco Giants followed by 3 with the Minnesota Twins. Division games are always important, and the Twins have passed Kansas City in the AL Central standings. First things first, let’s look at the Giants.
San Francisco is 28-19 on the season, good for third place in the brutal NL West. They are only 1 game back of the 1st place Dodgers and in a virtual tie with second place San Diego.
The Giants offense is average, they are 18th in baseball with a 98 WRC+. Their pitching has been good, their 3.40 ERA is 8th best and their WHIP of 1.22 is 11th. The San Francisco bullpen in particular has been outstanding. Giants relievers lead MLB in both ERA (2.51) and WHIP (1.04). It would behoove the Royals offense to put up some runs against the Giants starters this week.
Here’s the pitching matchups for the series by the bay…
Tonight - Kris Bubic (4-2, 1.66) vs Robbie Ray (6-0, 3.04) The Royals haven’t seen Robbie Ray since 2022, he has a 2.13 ERA in 12 2/3 career innings against Kansas City.
Tuesday - Michael Lorenzen (3-4, 3.76) vs Hayden Birdsong (1-0, 2.31) Birdsong started 16 games for the Giants last season, but has worked exclusively out of the bullpen in 2025 and will be making his first start of the season.
Wednesday - TBA vs Logan Webb The Royals haven’t announced a starter for Wednesday afternoon’s season finale. It figures to be a bullpen game and I expect Daniel Lynch IV to be the “opener” if he’s available. Righty Jonathan Bowlan is another possibility, but the Giants WRC+ is 16 points lower against lefties than it is right handed pitchers.