KANSAS CITY -- Kris Bubic began June like he pitched all May: As one of the best in the game.
The Royals’ lefty only allowed one run in seven innings Sunday afternoon against the Tigers and brought his season ERA down to an MLB-best 1.43 mark through 12 starts.
But in a cruel twist, he was handed the loss, and the clubhouse was quiet postgame instead of celebrating another great pitching performance. The Royals were shut out, 1-0, by the Tigers on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, dropping the series to the team at the top of the American League Central.
“You feel like you’re leaving a win out there, for sure,” manager Matt Quatraro said.
The offense leaving eight on base was another frustrating chapter in a season full of them. The Royals out-hit the Tigers, 9-5, pushed Tigers starter Keider Montero from the game in the fifth inning and had at least one runner on base in seven of nine innings.
“Frustrating [because] this game is about winning and losing,” said Salvador Perez, who went 3-for-4. “… We’re going to continue to compete every day. Hopefully everything changes soon.”
The Royals need something to change. The pitching has been dominant this year; even with the injuries sustained to Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo, the Royals’ rotation is one of the best in baseball. Bubic is pitching like an All-Star. Rookie Noah Cameron is making history every time he steps on the mound. Michael Wacha, on the better side of Saturday’s 1-0 win, isn’t slowing down in his 13th big league season with a 2.88 ERA.
Kansas City’s 3.00 rotation ERA ranks third-best in the Majors. The pitching staff as a whole has a 3.13 ERA (fourth-best). That would well surpass the Royals’ single-season ERA record, which the 1976 staff holds at 3.21.
But with an offense that ranks third-worst in MLB with 3.23 runs per game -- ahead of only the Pirates (3.16) and 50-loss Rockies (3.12) -- the Royals are staying right above .500 so far this year at 31-29.
“It is what it is,” Bubic said of the lack of run support Sunday. “I go out there trying to control what I can control. And it’s not for lack of effort on the guys. We see them working. We see them game-planning and stuff like that. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way.
“... As a pitching staff, if we continue to control what we can control, give ourselves chance to win, at the end of the day, that’s all we can ask.”
That’s all Bubic has done all year. In five starts in May, Bubic went 3-0 with an American League-best 0.56 ERA (two earned runs in 32 1/3 innings). It was the best mark in the month of May in Royals history and was the third-best in any month, trailing only Zack Greinke’s 0.50 ERA in April 2009 and Greinke’s 0.55 ERA in September of that year, which of course was Greinke’s AL Cy Young-winning season. Bubic is becoming a favorite in that race.
Bubic struck out nine Tigers on Sunday, tying a career-high that he’s done five times in his career -- and three of them have come in 2025. Sunday was Bubic’s eighth quality start this year and third consecutive start of seven innings.
“He has a relentlessness in the zone,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It just looks like guys don't pick up anything. … The uncomfortable at-bat that he creates is because he can pitch to all four quadrants of the zone and he can get you to chase because of the thought going into the at-bat that he pounds the zone."
The only blemishes on Bubic’s line Sunday were two walks and one run he allowed on a wild pitch -- which Perez took full accountability for when he didn’t chase the ball at the backstop.
Bubic hasn’t had a run like this since 2019, when he was a top pitching prospect in the Royals’ system and carving up hitters in the Carolina League. He had a 2.30 ERA for High-A Wilmington that year.
“That felt similar to this, where I could roll out there and felt like I could beat guys in-zone, get swing and miss, get weak contact, pitch deep into games,” Bubic said. “Granted, that was High-A ball. This is a little different.
“As long as I’m zoning the four-seam and sinker, and then having the changeup and two sliders playing off it, for a hitter, it’s a lot to cover. If I can throw everything for strikes, I know more often than not, it’s going to be a decent day.”