Powering forward

As a freeze descends over the Upper Midwest this week, the Royals bats provided some warmth on Monday in their 4-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. Since dropping the first two games of the year, followed by three wins in a row, the Royals have now taken to alternating wins and losses. At 5-5, they are at .500 for the fourth time already in this young season.

This win came courtesy of a strong performance from starter Michael Wacha who went seven innings and allowed just three hits and three walks against three strikeouts. The lone blemish on his evening was a home run from Steven Kwan in teh third inning that gave the Guardians a brief lead.

The Royals chipped back a half inning later with a walk to Vinnie Pasquantino and a two-out wild pitch strike three to Carter Jensen that kicked all the way to the backstop. That allowed Jensen to reach and Pasquantino to move to second. The Pasquatch came around to score on a Jonathan India liner to right to tie the game at one.

Jensen catapulted the Royals into the lead two innings later with his second home run of the year. It was on a 1-0 fastball that was a little bit up and a little bit in. I think Jensen likes it when fastballs are delivered there.

That’s just a sweet lefty swing. I’m watching this on a loop and my mind drifts to Will Clark. I need to rewind myself. Although it will not prevent me from providing another angle for your GIF viewing enjoyment.

And here are your official Statcast dinger metrics.

That was a sublimely barreled baseball.

The Royals doubled their tally in the eighth and it was once again powered by the Jensen and India duo. This time, Jensen reached with a single and India crushed a home run to left-center on a 3-2 changeup that caught far too much of the middle of the plate. It had a bit more arc than Jensen's, but the result was the same.

I remain skeptical when it comes to India's ability to drive the baseball, but in the season's first 10 games he does have two home runs and an .808 OPS. Don't mention this to anyone, but that's two more home runs and about 170 more points of OPS than Bob. I'm sure the universe will get right soon enough.

Speaking of Witt and getting right, I'm aware of the "what's wrong with Bob?" rumblings that come with the type of slow start we're seeing again from the Royals perennial MVP candidate. He went 2-4 on Monday with his first hit a single at a blistering 115.6 mph off the bat on a center-cut sinker.

In fact, he ripped the cover off the ball all four times he was up.

That is insane. The next step for Witt will to get his bat path right over the next handful of games and find a bit more loft. When that happens everything will be properly aligned and we will forget we were ever concerned about his offensive wellbeing.

Deep into this dispatch and I've written nary a word about the pitching. Let's correct that. Starter Michael Wacha didn't miss a thing in his (delayed) second start of the season. There wasn't anything particularly notable or special about his evening. He was just solid. He generated only six swings and misses and got the Guardians to chase just 14 percent of the time. Yet he worked ahead in the count for the most part and avoided hard contact while collecting more ground ball outs than balls hit in the air. As noted above, his only mistake was allowing a first-pitch solo home run to Steven Kwan with two outs in the third, but that pitch wasn't exactly poorly located. It was a good piece of hitting.

First out of the bullpen was Matt Strahm who let the Guardians creep back into the game off of a solo home run from Brayan Rocchio. That came on an elevated 2-1 fastball clocked at 90.5 mph. On the evening, Strahm uncorked a total of nine four-seamers that came in at an average of 89.9 mph. That's over two ticks down from his fastball velocity from last year and over three ticks from where he was living in 2023 and 2024. This could be a problem. Strahm struggling to hit 90 mph is very different from a Strahm who could reliably touch 93 mph on the gun.

Lucas Erceg came in for the ninth and, one day after throwing 30 pitches, required just 14 to set the Guardians down in order to lock up his third save of the season. Seven strong from the starter and then just two innings from your supposed best two relievers is the best way to bring home that win.

There were two things that happened in this game that would cause anyone to sit up and take notice. Witness instance number one.

Yes, that was Pasquantino laying down an almost-beaut of a bunt in the first inning. I say almost because it was a little too firm for my tastes, but nevertheless it got the job done on replay review where the initial out call was overturned. It was Pasquantino's third bunt hit of his career. Third! Look out, Kyle Isbel!

That bunt resulted in runners on first and second with just one out and Salvador Perez up. Alas, he grounded into an inning-ending double play.

I am firmly committed to the belief that the Royals need to push Perez at least two spots lower in the batting order for this lineup to optimize itself. This will likely be where I set my soapbox in 2026.

The second was this defensive wonder.

Yes, that is a true around the horn double play. A 92 mph liner off the glove of Maikel Garcia that deflected to Bobby Witt Jr. at short who scooped and fired a throw to Jonathan India at second who quickly pivoted and fired to Pasquantino at first for the twin killing. It was like watching an Olympic 4x100 relay.

As you know, I am a strong advocate for keeping score when you’re at the game. Sometimes, I’ll keep a scoresheet when I have a game on at home. I wish I had been scoring on Monday night because I am 99.9 percent certain that I have never strung together a 5-6-4-3 in my scorebook. According to Elias, that is the first time that's happened since 1995.

What a play.

I'll keep this entry short today as the Guardians moved the start time of Tuesday's game from 5:10 to 12:10 due to a forecast that seems very baseball-averse. Even with the move forward, this could be a very uncomfortable day. The temperature at first pitch on Tuesday is supposed to be 31 degrees with a 17 degree wind chill. Ugh.

Here are your probables for the rest of the Cleveland series:

April 7 at CLE - LHP Noah Cameron (1-0, 1.80) vs. RHP Gavin Williams (1-1, 2.25) at 12:10 p.m.
April 8 at CLE - LHP Cole Ragans (0-2, 3.60) vs. LHP Joey Cantillo (0-0, 3.00) at 12:10 p.m.