It may not have been the wettest game of the year for the Royals, but it was certainly the wildest. They were down big early. They fought back late. By the time the rain gauge was emptied, the Royals emerged 11-9 winners in their finale against the Angels. After falling behind 6-0, they tied the majors biggest comeback of the season. They earned their first series sweep of the season. And they also secured a winning homestand for the first time in 2026.

Whew. What a ballgame. Let’s dry out, have some fun and run some numbers to try to put this insane game into some kind of perspective.

3:10

This was the time of the first pitch. Originally scheduled as the marquee Sunday night game on NBC Sports, the Royals moved the game up a few hours. When teams do things like this it's usually an omen for weirdness ahead.

Sunday Night Baseball turned into Sunday Late Afternoon Baseball which...turned back into Sunday Night Baseball. Yes the baseball did indeed, get weird.

2

This was how many batters into the game it took for starter Seth Lugo to fall behind, 2-0. Hell, it took just three pitches.

After giving up a single to Zach Neto on the first pitch of the game, Mike Trout clubbed a 1-0 cutter to the left-center gap that carried out of the park for a home run. Right off the top of the newly brought in wall.

It was a shaky opening frame for Lugo, who followed the Trout homer by allowing a single to Yoán Moncada to keep the pressure on. He eventually got out of the inning without any further damage, but required 25 pitches, capped by a seven-pitch showdown where he struck out Jo Adell.

6

This was the total number of runs the Angels scored over the first two innings.

They followed up their early lead in the first by piling on in the second. Six of the first seven batters reached against Lugo. Josh Lowe and Travis d’Arnaud led off with singles and Adam Frazier and Neto followed with back-to-back doubles to extend the lead to 5-0. Jorge Soler added a one out single to push the advantage to six.

None of the first four hits were tattooed. The pitches put in play were all on the outer edge of the dish. It looked like some good hitting from the Angels. They were forcing Lugo to go deep into counts for the most part and then they were capitalizing. Lugo was up to 52 pitches in the first two innings. It looked like it would be a brief afternoon.

10

This was the number of Royals batters set down in a row by Angels starter Reid Detmers. Just another starter putting on a pitching masterclass against the Royals bats.

Detmers capped his streak by inducing a weak popup from leadoff man Lane Thomas, one that Detmers himself fielded.

Bobby Witt Jr. broke the streak by lacing a liner down the right field line. When Witt puts a ball in that location, he has one thing on his mind. Well, three, actually. Witt pulled into third with his first triple of the season to give the Royals their first baserunner and scoring chance on the afternoon.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez were unable to cash in Witt from third.

15”

That’s the amount of rain that fell at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday.

Fine. I made that number up. But I did start to worry when I noticed animals were pairing up. Slightly insane that the moved up the start time by about three hours to only play over half the game in an extreme downpour, punctuated by streaks of lightening and booms of thunder.

1

That’s the number of home runs for Witt this season.

Officially 427 feet through a blinding rainstorm. I did not know the ball could travel like that at The K when the weather was like that.

It’s been awhile, but the trend is Witt’s power is slow to develop in the season. He’s never exited the month of April with more than four home runs. Last season, he hit just two in the season’s first month. Sure, we’d all like to see more early pop, but it will come. This was a good start.

The Royals chipped away with a run in the fifth. Witt’s home run, following a Thomas single to open the sixth, cut the Angels lead to 6-3. The Royals pushed for more in the sixth, but couldn’t get another across. Vinnie Pasquantino walked (thanks to a successful ABS challenge), but Salvador Perez grounded into a double play. The Royals managed two more baserunners after that. What could’ve been…

14

This was the number of hits Lugo surrendered on the day. According to Stathead at Baseball Reference, he was the first pitcher since 2016 to go at least 6.1 innings while surrendering 14 hits. Cole Hamels gave up 14 hits—and just two runs—over seven full innings for the Phillies in August of 2016. The last Royals starter to post a line like that was Gil Meche, who threw 6.1 innings while giving up five runs on 14 hits in August of 2008. I’m still finding Meche Money from time to time.

In the aftermath of the game, when Thomas was being interviewed on the field by NBC Sports, the first thing he mentioned was how Lugo pushed through his outing despite allowing the six runs in the first two innings. His teammates noticed that, while he lacked his best stuff, he continued to grit through the outing. He could’ve continued to slide downhill, but he stopped the bleeding long enough to allow his team to crawl back into the game while saving the bullpen. And on this team, this year, saving the bullpen cuts a couple of different ways.

1:29

That was the official time of the rain delay that came in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score 7-4 with two runners on and Witt coming up to bat.

By that point, the game had been played for at least three innings in a steady deluge. It was a constant and unrelenting rain. In the early part of the storm, the umpires were just trying to get the game to official status to save the Angels from making another trip to Kansas City later this summer. Come on. No less an authority than Travel + Leisure Magazine says Kansas City is the hottest travel destination in America this summer. The Angels should want to come back.

I was surprised when the Royals came out for the sixth inning. At the very least I thought they would pull the tarp on the field and wait a couple of hours to see if it would pass before calling the game. Yet they played on for another couple of innings. So when the umps decided to call for the tarp at that moment, when the Royals were rallying and had their best player at the plate in what was, to that point, the most important point in the game...It was kind of unreal.

When the game resumed, Witt grounded into a fielder’s choice that moved a runner to third. Pasquantino is back on that sac fly train and delivered again. The Royals didn’t do the damage they could’ve, but settled for a single post-rain delay run to cut the Angels lead to 7-5.

0.5%

This was the Royals Win Probability after Witt grounded out in the ninth inning with the Royals trailing 8-5.

12.5

That’s the time, in seconds, that it took Vinnie Pasquantino to motor from the batter’s box to third base on his two-out triple in the ninth inning.

There’s so much nuance in that moment of Pasquantino not settling for a mere double. For one, it was incredibly dangerous to try to grab that third base on a ball he hit to right field. If he had been thrown out...oh my. It helped that Adell misplayed the carom and there wasn't even a play at the bag. That entire sequence, though, sent a message to the dugout: While things were bleak in that moment, the Royals were not going to go quietly. They were going to battle. They were going to grab the extra base. They were going to put pressure on the Angels bullpen and, in what was shaping up to be a laugher of a game early, make them earn the victory.

Pressure? Yeah. Pasquantino scored on Perez’s single back up the middle. He probably would’ve scored just as easily from second and his run at the time, didn’t mean all that much, but that moment provided a vibe shift.

409

That’s the distance, in feet, that Jac Caglianone’s game-tying home run traveled down the right field line.

Statcast has Caglianone’s bat speed on the swing at 77.3 mph. He needed that kind of force to turn on a 92 mph fastball from a lefty that ran up and in on him. It was just a piece of pure hitting from Cags. One that we’ve known he’s capable of. How absolutely satisfying that swing was.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that it was a good pitch in a great location from the lefty Drew Pomeranz. Pomeranz has been doing this a long time. In his career, he’s faced a lefty 1,011 times. He’s allowed just 15 home runs. It works out to a slugging percentage against left-handed hitters of .305. Again, that’s the slugging percentage. Left handed hitters do not club home runs against Drew Pomeranz. Especially not this pitch in this location. This game was all but over.

And then it wasn’t.

Caglianone turned that narrative around with one ferocious swing of the bat.

This was just a tremendous moment. Forget the homer. Had Caglianone failed to extend the inning, it would’ve been chalked as another loss. A comeback that fell short. The Royals would’ve exited Kauffman with a series win against the Angels and a homestand where they went 3-3. It’s not the result you want, but after the dreck of the last roadtrip and the eventual eight-game losing streak, a couple of victories, no matter how small, are necessary.

Except we won't forget the homer. It was an absolutely tremendous piece of hitting. The way he kept his hands back and in, to get the barrel on that pitch in that location. Mercy. Caglianone came through. Big time.

.497

That's Lane Thomas' career slugging percentage against left-handed pitchers.

Thomas was brought to Kansas City this winter as the team's top free agent signing for the sole purpose of extending the lineup against lefties. While his career has hit a few speedbumps of late, one thing that has always remained true for Thomas is he is a much better hitter against left-handed pitching than righties.

By the 10th inning on Sunday, the Angels had burned through four relievers in a bullpen that had a bit of a shakeup coming into the game. They burned their presumed closer, Sam Bachman, in a high-leverage situation in the sixth when it seemed as though the game would be shortened due to rain. Their other top relievers came behind, so that left newcomer Joey Lucchesi to try to close out the game for his first career save. He got the first two outs but extended the inning by walking Maikel Garcia. Garcia pinch hit in the eighth, marking the first time he had appeared in a game since Wednesday afternoon when he exited with elbow soreness. That brought up Thomas.

I suppose Angels manager Kurt Suzuki could've brought in right-hander José Fermin who, like Lucchesi, had been called up to the majors earlier in the day. Instead, he decided to cede the platoon advantage to the Royals to ride with his veteran.

It did not work out.

At first, I did not think Thomas got enough of the pitch. But then I saw Lucchesi hang his head. That told me what I needed to know. The game ended the same way it opened: with a Kauffman Stadium Special. God, baseball is a fantastic game.

It was Thomas' first walkoff hit of any kind in his career. It provided the final three runs in the wildest game of the season, an 11-9 win. And it gave us this beaut of a win probability chart from Baseball Savant.

A few hours later, my mind is still a jumbled mess from what I witnessed. Insanity.

I am not going to write about how this is a turning point or this provides momentum or anything of that nature. Baseball is too fickle to make proclamations based on just one game, no matter how fantastic that game might be. Instead, I'll just reach for a towel, dry myself off and savor another magical afternoon that turned into night at The K. What a fantastic ballgame.

I was tempted to wrap things there, because frankly, I'm exhausted, but Cole Ragans has had a month of April that defies explanation. Yet we shall try.

Let’s recap.

4/2 - 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO

Coming on the heels of a bumpy Opening Day assignment where Ragans surrendered three home runs, Ragans finds his footing against the Twins. This start felt very much like vintage Ragans.

4/8 - 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO

Against Cleveland, Ragans came out of the gate on fire, punching out the first two hitters he faced. The third hitter, José Ramìrez, hit a comebacker that deflected off Ragans’ pitching hand. He was not the same afterwards and was pulled prior to the conclusion of the first inning.

4/14 - 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 1 SO

All Ragans starts carry a modicum of scrutiny. Such is the burden of being an ace. There was a little more scrutiny in this outing, coming days after his early exit with the, let’s call it, injury. On one hand, it was another typical Ragans outing where he limited the hits and kept the Tigers from crossing the plate. But the one strikeout? The fewest strikeouts for Ragans in a start with the Royals was the two in his previous injury-shortened outing. Prior to that it was three, last reached in his Opening Day start in 2025.

In other words, just one strikeout from Ragans was a bit…bizarre. And coming off his previous outing, concerning.

4/19 - 4.1 IP, 4 H, 7 ER, 8 BB, 6 SO

If his outing against Detroit was concerning, his start against the Yankees was a five-alarm fire. Eight walks? He’d never done that. Plus, the four-seamer was down about a tick from where he had been in his previous starts.

That was the backdrop when Ragans toed the slab in his start on Saturday. From the jump, though, it was obvious that this one would be different. The fastball had life. Not only was he throwing harder than he had all season to this point, he was locating, something he had obviously struggled with in his previous two starts. The stars were aligned and Ragans delivered. I won’t say it was his first ace-like start of the year. That second outing of the season against the Twins was also very good.

It was his most dominant start though, as Ragans tied a career-high in recording 27 whiffs.

Lordy, was the four-seamer working. Batters could not lay off the pitch when it was elevated. It’s like eating a pound of M&M’s while crushing a 12-pack of Coke. It’s not good for you, but you just cannot help yourself. And the fastball played off the changeups that were running with abandon to the arm-side.

You’ll notice the absence of sliders in the above chart. That’s because Ragans did not throw one. The slider is a pitch he added immediately after he arrived from Texas in 2023. It’s become a fantastic strikeout pitch for him, getting a swing and a miss well over a third of the time. It’s been his third-most frequent offering since 2024. Yet he completely eschewed the pitch, instead relying on his knuckle curve as his third pitch.

Ragans went 6 innings for the third time this season, allowing just one run on five hits. He struck out 11. Most importantly, given his command issues since taking that comebacker off his hand, he did not allow a single free pass.

In fact, Ragans threw a pitch with a 3-ball count just six times on the night. And five of those came with a full count.

Sure, the Angels expanded the zone a couple of times, swinging at a potential ball four, but that's the design of locating well. Hitters cannot be passive in that count, especially with the count full.

It was just a gem of a performance from the Royals ace. Given the ups and downs of the month, I'm not all-in at this point, but given his track record, it's feeling close. With the bats starting to stir in this homestand, getting an outing like this from Ragans was necessary and very much welcome.

And it turns out it paved the way for a sweep and a very good weekend for the Kansas City Royals.