Lugo lacerates lifeless litigant lineup 6-1

The game was close before the Royals pulled away late.

Seth Lugo carved up a hapless Toronto lineup while the Royals rallied offensively after a slow start to beat the Blue Jays 6-1 this afternoon in Toronto.

The first third of the game flew by in just under 40 minutes, with each team managing just one baserunner through three innings. The Royals looked patient against Chris Bassitt early on, seeing pitches and forcing him to use 20 to get through the first inning. They seemed to abandon that plan after the first though, swinging at everything en route to 1-2-3 innings in the second and third that saw Bassitt throw just 18 total pitches. Meanwhile, Lugo pounded the strike zone while keeping Toronto hitters off balance with seven different pitches. After Vladimir Guerrero Jr. torched a single at 115.1 mph off the bat, Lugo sat down the next eight Blue Jays in order.

My dream of the sub-two hour game was dashed in the fourth inning. With two outs and a 2-2 count on Salvador Perez, Bassitt went high-and-tight with a cutter. Perez ducked back and the ball clipped something. Home plate umpire DJ Rayburn called it a foul tip into the glove of catcher Danny Jansen, ending the inning. Matt Quatraro came out to argue and the call ended up being overturned on replay to an HBP. It probably should have been a strikeout as it looked like Perez went around, but the first base umpire had signaled no-swing. This would not end up impacting the game as Michael Massey struck out to end the inning.

Kansas City finally managed to draw first blood in the sixth with a combination of small ball and rockets off the bat (big ball?). Kyle Isbel led off the inning by poking a double out to left. Maikel Garcia bunted him to third before Bobby Witt Jr. brought Isbel home with a chopper right back through the box that got past a drawn-in Toronto infield. Vinnie Pasquantino hit a rocket out to center field for a double that got Witt to third. Perez then also took advantage of the infield playing in by smoking a grounder past a diving Bo Bichette, scoring Witt. Davis Schneider made a nice diving stop to take a hit away from Massey, but Pasquantino was able to score on the play to give the Royals a 3-0 lead.

The Jays had no answers for Lugo all afternoon. They went down in order in four of Lugo’s seven innings and only managed to get one baserunner in scoring position against Kansas City’s starter. Toronto finally managed to break up the shutout with two outs in the seventh when Jansen smoked a liner that just cleared the left field wall for a solo homer. Massey would render that irrelevant in the next inning with a towering home run off the right field foul pole to bump Kansas City’s lead to 6-1. Chris Stratton and Nick Anderson managed to get it done in relief to secure the victory for the Royals.

Some nuggets:

• Today’s win gives the Royals a 5-2 record in the season series over Toronto. The last time Kansas City won five or more games in a season series against an AL East team was 2016, when they went 5-2 against Tampa Bay.
• Seth Lugo has a 1.60 ERA for the season after today. His 1.60 ERA is the lowest for any pitcher’s first seven starts as a Royal, besting Cole Ragans’s 1.73 mark last summer.
• Today’s game was the 13th road win for the Royals clocked under two and a half hours since the introduction of the pitch clock. The Royals had 14 such wins from 2013-2022.

The win secures the series for the Royals and improves the team to 19-13. The team will have the day off tomorrow before welcoming the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers to town for a three-game set starting this Friday.

Seth Lugo: 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HR

Chris Bassitt: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 0 HR

Vinnie Pasquantino: 2-3, 2B, 2 R, BB

Danny Jansen: 1-4, HR, R, RBI