Hot bats back Lugo's solid start as Royals earn much-needed win

KANSAS CITY -- As the Royals have struggled and grinded their way through the past week of losses and offensive frustrations, players, coaches and personnel alike have consistently communicated that each day was a new opportunity for things to turn.

Saturday was the time. Kauffman Stadium was the place. To say the Royals needed a game like this would be an understatement, as they saw the bats break out in a 9-5 win over the Dodgers, snapping a six-game losing streak and an 11-game home losing streak, the latter of which had spanned the entire month of June.

While the win was “no sweeter than any other win,” as Vinnie Pasquantino insisted, it did feel like some sort of relief just for the Royals to get back in the win column, especially at home, in front of a packed house that took the opportunity to see two-way player Shohei Ohtani pitch for the Dodgers.

But the Royals gave that crowd something to cheer about, even if it came after Ohtani’s two scoreless innings. Kansas City has only scored nine runs or more five times this year, and Saturday was just the second time at The K after they scored 10 against the White Sox on May 8.

The onslaught backed Seth Lugo's 5 2/3 scoreless innings, with the righty allowing four hits and striking out eight. As Lugo continued to battle blisters that may have affected his command -- he walked five on Saturday -- he also executed when he needed to with runners on base. And he kept Ohtani and Mookie Betts hitless at the top of the order.

“I think it’s really important to keep those guys off base,” Lugo said. “Those two, they get their whole lineup going, so if I can really bear down against the one-two in their lineup, we’ve got a pretty good shot at putting up zeros, and that’s what we did.”

Then Lugo received run support from an offense that has struggled to do so for its pitching staff. The Royals knocked 14 hits total and went 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position after going 6-for-34 (.176) with RISP in the previous six games.

It all started at the top.

The top four batters in the starting lineup combined to go 11-for-17 with eight runs, four doubles, one home run, eight RBIs, a walk and just one strikeout.

Jonathan India was 4-for-5 with an RBI and three runs scored. Bobby Witt Jr. was 4-for-5, including his Majors-leading 28th double, and three runs scored. Maikel Garcia put the Royals on the board with a wall-scraping two-run double.

“Maikel really set the tone for us today,” Pasquantino said. “That was a massive hit.”

Pasquantino delivered an even bigger hit with his three-run homer in the fifth, a 430-foot blast out to the fountains in right field for the first baseman’s team-leading 12th home run of the year. Pasquantino’s double in the seventh gave him five RBIs Saturday, which matched his career best set on April 10, 2024.

Both of Pasquantino’s hits came when he was down in the count. So did Garcia’s. Both were trying to put the ball in play and drive in runs, leading to damage.

“I think that’s the catch 22 with us as a team,” Pasquantino said. “I think we’re [second best] in strikeout rate [18.6%, entering Saturday]. I think sometimes you prefer some more damage, and you’re OK with giving up some strikeouts.

“But then when things work out like they did today, and you’re able to get to two-strike counts, put some balls in play, and they fall -- like, that’s when it becomes a pretty dangerous lineup.”

And Salvador Perez got in on the action, too, with his RBI double in the seventh inning marking his 1,643 career hit -- pulling him into a tie with Royals Hall of Famer Alex Gordon for sixth all time in franchise history.

“You don’t get a lot of days like we had today, just in baseball overall,” Garcia said. “Me, Vinnie, Salvy, India, Bobby. That’s hard to do every single day. But I think if we play like that, just the top of the lineup doing that, we’re going to be good.”

Of course, one win doesn’t mean that everything is fixed. But the Royals at least set themselves up for Sunday’s series-deciding game -- and ensured June would not pass without their home fans seeing a win.

“One win doesn’t erase 11 losses,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “We have to come out and stack good games together. … But here’s our opportunity to get one game better, and we did that today.”