Power up: It's a Royal run-scoring extravaganza

You may think you have this game figured out. You may think you’ve seen everything. You may think there’s no reason to watch a Monday day baseball game with a team that is sinking fast in a mediocre American League.

Why would you ever think that? Sleep on baseball, and it’s always possible you’ll miss a slice of history.

All the Royals—those strugging, scuffling Royals—did on Monday was score in every inning they came to bat, beating the Philadelphia Phillies and ace starter Christopher Sánchez by a 15-1 scoreline where they knocked 22 hits, both season-high marks.

Say it with me: Baseball!

I’ll get to the individual moments further down the post, but I am completely stunned that these offensively-challenged Royals (although they have shown promise at times this season) were able to score in every inning. They capitalized on an error to erupt for six runs in the first, then scored single tallies in each of the next five innings before going for two in the seventh and eighth. Fifteen runs total. Fifteen!

Hell, they also scored in the eighth on Sunday which means they’ve now scored in nine consecutive innings. That’s a franchise record. It all sort of makes the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Mets appointment viewing just to see if they can extend the streak.

For a little context, Monday was the second time in club history they scored in every inning. They did it against Oakland back in September of 1998. The last team to accomplish this was the Chicago White Sox in 2016.

It’s impossible to undersell just how wild this game was. What the Royals accomplished by scoring in every inning has only been done 21 times since 1901. Twenty-one times in the history of the game! It’s like an offensive perfect game.

Philadelphia starter Christopher Sánchez is a front-runner for the NL Cy Young award, the likely starter for the Senior Circuit in the upcoming All-Star game and an all-around ace. He’s also a southpaw, and we all know how the Royals have struggled against lefties this season. It was a game that was set up to be a showcase for Sánchez. Maybe so if we were just rolling dice and playing Strat-O-Matic.

Because the Royals were all over Sánchez all afternoon, chasing him after he allowed nine runs on 12 hits. The 12 hits allowed matched a career high. The nine runs surrendered by Sánchez is a new high-water mark for the lefty. His previous career-high for runs allowed in a start was seven. Again…baseball!

How in the world did the Royals pull off the seemingly impossible by working over one of the best pitchers in the game?

Sánchez works with three pitches: a sinker, a changeup and a slider. The change is his best offering. Opponents are hitting just .142 against the pitch with a meager .179 slugging percentage. Coming into Monday’s game, he had just one home run on the change this season. Folding last year’s performance into the numbers, Sánchez had allowed just three home runs on his changeup since the start of 2025. On Monday, he allowed three home runs against his changeup in 3.1 innings. To the Kansas City Royals.

WILD!

Sánchez usually works down in the zone with his cambio. This is where he’s located the pitch this season:

On Monday, he was routinely leaving the pitch elevated and in the meaty part of the zone.

He clearly wasn't commanding the pitch at all. These were the results when the Royals put the changeup in play:

Luke Maile, up for the first time this season, clubbed a three-run home run off the top of the wall in the bottom of the first to put a cap on the six-run frame. That was followed by a Salvador Perez bomb in the second and a Lane Thomas shot in the fourth.

Let's talk about that first inning. Thomas opened with a walk, was forced on a ground ball from Bobby Witt Jr. Witt advanced to second on a Perez single which brought up Jac Caglianone. As hot as Caglianone was in St. Petersburg, that offensive well has run a bit dry of late. He hit a grounder to second that should've (could've?) been an inning-ending double play. Instead, shortstop Trey Turner threw it away on the pivot and from there the dam just broke wide open. Nick Loftin singled, Starling Marte singled and Tyler Tolbert singled to provide the Royals with a 3-1 lead.

That made the inning very satisfying. Except you don't get anywhere in sports by being satisfied. That's were Maile came in with his home run on that low, middle changeup above. It just carried and carried...until it hit the top of the wall in right-center.

Welcome back, Mr. Maile!

That home run was a new Kauffman Stadium special, although with the distance was stated as 396 feet. I love those kinds of home runs where we can look at each other and go, "Yep. That would've been an out last year."

The offense kept flowing.

The Royals scored again in the second on a Perez home run. They scored in the third on a Tolbert double. In both innings, the Royals ran into outs on the bases. Normally, that would be frustrating. In the second, Thomas was thrown out at second trying to tag up on a Witt fly out, which felt doubly-frustrating. Thomas hit his home run in the fourth which pretty much ended Sánchez's day.

The last batter that Sánchez faced, Perez, doubled in the fourth. That officially put him on Cycle Watch as he was just a triple away. You laugh, but come on...anything was possible on Monday afternoon. According to Royals PR, it was the 19th time he was one hit short of the cycle. Of those 19 times, he was short a triple on 17 of those occasions.

In the fifth, Tolbert muscled up and left the yard. It was his second career home run, the first coming last year on a day the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field. This one was another new Kauffman special, but who cares? It flew over the fence. Maybe that was the plan all along...bring the fences in for...Tolbert?

That home run also put Tolbert on Cycle Watch. Like Perez, he was a triple shy. Unlike Perez, Tolbert has never, ever hit a major league triple. You would think that with that dude's speed he's made it a third of the way around the bases at least once. Alas. He just doesn't put much sting on the baseball. Or if he does, I suppose it just flies over the fence.

Marte drove in a run in the seventh. The Royals loaded the bases in the eighth on two walks and a hit by pitch, which allowed Cags to get in on the action, singling and driving in one. Loftin followed with a ground out.

The Phillies went with a position player to finish the game in the eighth with Garrett Stubbs. The first man up was Tolbert. Come on! Have some respect for a guy on Cycle Watch! Stubbs is up there floating 37 mph eephus balls. How is a slugger like Tolbert supposed to launch one to the gap for his triple?

Tolbert only singled. Tough to be disappointed when he went 5-5 on the afternoon. It was the first five-hit game for the Royals since Hunter Dozier did it in 2022. When you started reading this story about an offensive explosion did you think you'd stumble across Dozier's name? I bet not.

Tolbert advanced to second on a walk to Maile and then scored on a Michael Massey single, giving the Royals the perfect offensive game. They tacked on one more run for good measure on an Isaac Collins single.

With all the focus on the offense, it could be easy to overlook the grind that was Royals starter Noah Cameron's day. He put eight runners on over the first three innings—where he threw 74 pitches!—but allowed just one to score. He managed to just get through five. On the day he allowed six hits and five walks but he did strike out seven. It wasn't his best day at the office, but it should be a satisfying one. It felt like things could've gone sideways for him at basically any moment, yet he kept his nerve and kept the Phillies off the scoreboard after that first inning.

What a fun game. It's almost like a reward for suffering through the first three and a half month of the season. Almost.