Jakob Junis throws first career complete game in Royals’ win

It was late Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, and Jakob Junis pushed through the door of the Royals clubhouse with a pace to his step. A few feet outside, his wife and twin toddlers were waiting. They are frequent attendants when Junis starts a game, but the length of their stay often coincides with the duration of Junis’ stay on the mound.

On Tuesday, they were there from start to finish.

As was Junis.

Junis overwhelmed the Tigers for the first complete game of his young career, a 6-2 victory in front of a crowd of 16,888 at Kauffman Stadium.

A man who prides himself on maintaining a stoic presence calmly raised his hands in the air as the 27th and final out landed in third baseman Alcides Escobar’s glove in foul territory.

“It’s awesome,” Junis said. “That’s a goal you set to do. It was a great feeling, for sure, to accomplish that. Hopefully more to come.”

The Royals supported him with a five-run third — led by Adalberto Mondesi’s 410-foot home run and Hunter Dozier’s two-run double.

But the focal point was Junis. The explanation for his late-season turnaround is rather simple — command — but the wait for it was anything but. After hitting a wall in the middle of his sophomore season, Junis landed on the disabled list. For nearly three weeks, he bided his time for a shot to reverse the narrative.

Once he returned, he returned to his old self.

And then some.

The 104-pitch outing Tuesday provided Junis with his career-first complete game and offered the Royals their first nine-inning complete game of 2018. His final line: nine innings, six hits, two runs, zero walks, seven strikeouts.

“He won’t show it, but he was very frustrated when he was going through that (slump),” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s not a robot, but he’s got great composure on the mound.”

If there was a departure from his cool, calm and collected nature, it arrived in the top of the eighth. With a runner on first and one out — and two relievers warming in the bullpen — Junis induced an inning-ending double play.

He yelled out as he turned to the dugout.

“If he has a long at-bat there, who knows if I even go back out?” Junis said. “I was just glad to get two outs and not have one. That could’ve caused for a long inning or a reliever coming in for me. So to get the double play in that situation specifically was what led me to actually complete the game.”

And a midgame adjustment.

After beating Detroit three times early in the season, the Tigers came ready to pounce on Junis’ slider, his go-to out pitch. Three of the first eight hitters singled. So Junis shifted. Following a conversation with pitching coach Cal Eldred, he relied instead on his fastball.

“They got some good hitters over there. We’ve seen each other a lot,” Junis said. “At the beginning of the game, I think they had a good game plan against me. They were just waiting for me to throw a slider over the plate, and they were hitting it. We kind of had to switch it up and go fastball.

“That was definitely the turning point in the game.”

Junis has allowed two earned runs or fewer in his past five starts.

It was a struggle beforehand. Junis lost seven straight summer outings, a slump littered with walks and home runs. The only break from the stretch came in the trip to the disabled list, with lower back inflammation the culprit. That put an 18-day interval between starts.

But while the previous month stewed, it also allowed Junis an opportunity to step back and examine the root of his struggles. Two items popped up on the stat sheet. Walks. And home runs.

Junis had his command Tuesday. He walked none. He threw only 36 balls to the 32 hitters he faced.

The home run bit him just once — a solo shot from JaCoby Jones in the eighth inning that outlasted the stretch of left fielder Alex Gordon.

“I hung a slider to Jones that he took advantage of and hit it. I was pretty upset about that,” Junis said. “That’s something that I’ve been working on — not hanging that. (The next batter) got a hit, and I was like, ‘All right, settle down.’

“Thankfully, the next pitch we executed exactly what we wanted to do. It got hit right to Esky and turned a double play.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 10:06 PM.