Bombed out

Sunday afternoon was dual-screen time as the Royals game and the World Cup final vied for attention. Who knows why? Both games were terrible. I should’ve mowed the yard. Or at least washed the car.

The Royals, after winning the first two games of their series against the San Diego Padres, decided that was more than enough winning for now. They no-showed Sunday in a 19-2 dismantling. Remember that game a couple of weeks ago where the Royals piled on in a 15-1 victory over the Phillies? Consider this a leveling of baseball karma. Painful, yet inevitable.

The final score looks worse than it should've been, but that what happens in baseball in 2026 when the Royals send Tyler Tolbert to the mound to surrender six more runs before he can record three outs. Although Tolbert has made enough pitching appearances of late that he probably needs to do some bullpen sessions to stay sharp.

Why don’t we open the discussion of Sunday’s game with the only good thing that happened all afternoon.

That’s Jac Caglianone tearing into a hanging curve and launching it 432 feet. It was his 16th home run of the season. He also added a double and is now on a 10 game hitting streak. According to the Royals PR team, among all players with at least 15 home runs this year, Caglianone’s average dinger distance of 416 feet is tied with Shea Langeliers of Sacramento for the longest in the majors. He may not have advanced in the Home Run Derby over All-Star Week, but he certainly deserved to be in the group of competitors. Nobody hits them further—or louder—than Cags.

What I really like about this particular Jac jack is that the first pitch was a 95 mph four-seamer from starter Germán Márquez that was up and in that Caglianone swung at and missed. It was one of those where he saw the elevated pitch, decided to swing a bit too late and was ultimately tardy. Following that with a curve isn’t a terrible idea. Márquez and his batterymate probably figured that Caglianone would be a little more on the front foot to get level with the heater so they could speed up his bat and get him to offer early. Except the curve just kind of…hung there. Cags was early, but he wasn’t too early.

He swung at 82.5 mph. That'll make anyone early. And that’s some violence that I can get behind. So vicious. Yet so smooth. When Caglianone is swinging like that, on an offspeed pitch in that location…the sound. The sound! I was surprised the ball landed in front of Rivals in right field. I thought it had a shot of hitting a bartender.

So that was the good. The rest? Awful. So very, very awful.

Regression continues to charge at Noah Cameron. The lefty somehow got through five innings, but it was at a cost. He allowed seven runs on nine hits. Watching him spray pitches all over the batter’s boxes, it was a minor miracle that he only issued two free passes. These were the locations of the pitches he threw that went for hits.

There’s far too much middle-middle there. Especially on the cut fastball. It basically established residency in the center of the plate. I believe the pitch applied for a driver’s license and registered to vote. These are all the cutters Cameron threw on Sunday:

The average exit velocity on a Cameron cutter put in play was 96.8. One went for a home run. Two others were doubles. Credit to the Padre hitters who waited out the Cameron wildness early in the counts to square up the Fat City pitches that were pending.

Over Cameron’s last seven starts has thrown 35 innings while allowing 32 runs with 31 of them earned. He's struck out 29 and walked 17. That’s simply not good enough. Even for a fifth starter.

After Cameron’s day was finished, it was the bullpen’s opportunity to turn up the stink. They did not disappoint. Matt Strahm was first. Naturally, he allowed a home run. Strahm actually steadied himself a bit prior to his debacle outings against the Orioles just before the break. No more, I guess. His home run rate climbed to 2.8 HR/9. He’d better be careful: Only 16 relievers in the history of the game have posted a HR/9 greater than his current mark. Something to keep an eye on, I suppose, as the Royals play out the string.

Beck Way did his best to get through two innings before running out of gas just short of the mark. The solution was to bring in Lucas Erceg to face Ty France with the bases loaded.

What did anyone think was going to happen? Even though it was a reconfigured Kauffman Stadium special, damage is damage. And a grand slam when the Royals were nursing an 8-2 deficit is heavy.

Entering Sunday’s game, France’s 1.351 OPS at Kauffman Stadium was the highest among all opponents who played at least 20 games against the Royals. Ty France is basically 1921 Babe Ruth against the Royals at The K.

After Sunday’s wave of destruction—he also hit a home run against Tolbert in the ninth inning—France is now hitting .438/.544/836 in 90 career PAs against the Royals at The K. He's gone from 1921 Ruth to 2002 Barry Bonds.

I thought it was kind of fun that, immediately after the grand slam, Erceg issued two walks and hit a batter to reload the bases. It was almost as if he asked for a baseball mulligan. Dangerous, but I can respect that. Somehow, it worked! He got Jase Bowen to ground out to end the inning.

Between Erceg and Tolbert the Royals coughed up 11 runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Thanks for coming, everyone!

While Sunday’s game was garbage, we shouldn’t overlook that the Royals did take two of three from the Padres. Friday’s game, in particular, was as packed with as many highs and lows as you could imagine in one game.

The Royals scored once in the eighth to take a 3-2 lead. That bad man, France, homered with two outs in the ninth. Go away, Ty France. The Padres scored their Manfred Man in the tenth and tacked on two more to take a 6-3 lead. The Royals then also scored their Manfred Man but they added three more to win the game. The game-winning hit came courtesy Carter Jensen’s single that scored two.

The Royals had a 96 percent win probability in their favor in the ninth. The Padres had a 92 percent win probability in their favor in the 10th. The Royals should’ve given away neck braces after the game to treat the whiplash. At least it was happy whiplash.

Saturday’s game was a bit more routine where Lane Thomas hit another home run—he also hit one on Friday and is now batting .321/.390/.698 with eight doubles and four home runs in July—and Salvador Perez crushed the 315th homer of his career. The Captain is now just two home runs from tying George Brett for the most in franchise history. That’s about the only thing worth following these next few weeks.

The Royals planned for starter Steven Kolek to make one rehab start in Omaha before he returned from the family emergency list. Made sense. Kolek had pitched in just one game since June 21—a two inning outing against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 2. Kolek’s daughter was born seven weeks premature on June 25 and a start for the Storm Chasers would be a way for him to build back up after the time away to be with his family.

The right-hander fired 2.2 innings on Saturday for Omaha before exiting with an injury. On Sunday he landed on the 15-day IL with right flexor strain. Uh-oh. A flexor strain can be a precursor to Tommy John surgery.

Bobby Witt Jr. was held out of Sunday's game with back tightness. He's considered day-to-day as the injury situation after the All-Star Break looks no different from what it was before.

Central Issues

The White Sox were the only winners on an ugly sports Sunday.

White Sox 3
Blue Jays 0

Sean Burke allowed two hits over 6.2 innings, striking out five and Bryan Hudson and Grant Taylor closed out the shutout with 2.1 clean innings in relief. Toronto starter Trey Yesavage tied a career-high with nine punchouts but allowed all three Sox runs. Chicago took two of three from the Jays.

Pirates 7
Guardians 1

Paul Skenes struck out eight in seven innings and rookie Esmerlyn Valdez continued to rake, hitting a home run in the ninth to put a cap on the scoring for the Pirates. Valdez is the fourth player in major league history to hit at least 12 home runs and 31 RBIs in his first 31 career games. A bit esoteric, I suppose. The Pirates won two of three against the Guardians.

Twins 1
Cubs 10

A romp in Wrigley as Alex Bregman hit a two-run home run and Nico Hoerner chipped in with a bases-loaded triple and four RBIs total to power the Cubbie offense. Shota Imanaga went seven scoreless, allowing six hits while striking out four. Chicago won two of three from Minnesota.

Tigers 2
Angels 3

Kevin McGonigle hit his third leadoff home run of the season to open the game, but the Angels plated single tallies in the second, fifth and sixth innings to regain the lead. Zach Neto, Jorge Soler and Oswaldo Peraza drove in runs for the Angels who avoided the sweep.

The humdrum AL Central has me ogling the Eastern division where the Red Sox have reeled off 13 wins in a row to catapult themselves into a Wild Card spot while the Orioles are hot on their tail with seven wins in a row of their own. All that is happening while the Rays have gone cold and dropped five in a row.

Up Next

The Royals continue with NL West interleague play as they host the San Francisco Giants for three.

July 20 - RHP Trevor McDonald (3-7, 5.02) vs. RHP Michael Wacha (5-7, 3.77) at 6:40 p.m.
July 21 - RHP Tyler Mahle (2-8, 5.31) vs. RHP Luinder Avila (4-3, 5.08) at 6:40 p.m.
July 22 - RHP Landen Roupp (7-8, 3.98) vs. RHP Seth Lugo (3-6, 4.39) at 1:10 p.m.

The Giants are 15 games under .500 with first-year manager Tony Vitello. The whole "college coach to MLB manager" experiment isn't going well in San Francisco, but that doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy it.