Kris Bubic made key pitches in his return to the Kansas City Royals’ rotation
The Houston Astros’ offense hadn’t been consistently productive enough to warrant comparison to a pack of wolves cornering an opposing pitcher. But there certainly were several dangerous predators in the lineup that Kansas City Royals left-hander Kris Bubic faced in his return to the big leagues.
Bubic navigated the Houston Astros deftly with the help of his defense, pitching five scoreless innings to put the Royals on the path to a 6-0 win at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday.
The victory snapped the team’s five-game losing skid. It also gave Bubic the third scoreless start of his career, the first since Sept. 26, 2021.
“Good enough,” Bubic said of his outing. “The defense was great, bailed me out of a lot of situations today. (Catcher Salvador Perez) stuck with me the whole game. I was kind of tiptoeing the whole time, but made pitches kind of when we needed it most. We got a good team win because of it.”
The Astros entered the day slightly below the league average in scoring (average was 4.29, they averaged 4.15). However, they were coming off of Friday night’s performance when they showed their combustibility with a 10-run performance that included three home runs.
“Watching what they did (Friday) it just seemed like they were on everything,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the Astros. “You could tell that he’s hiding the ball really well with good late life to get the swings that he was getting all game. …
“The ceiling of what he has as he starts developing his other pitches and he really locates, which he can and he’s going to, it’s impressive.”
Astros leadoff hitter Jose Altuve, a seven-time All-Star and former AL MVP, has been a powder keg since he returned from an IL stint that ended on May 2. In 28 starts since, Altuve batted .308 with 14 RBIs, 22 runs scored, a .617 slugging percentage and a .995 OPS. His nine home runs tied for the second-most in the AL during that span.
Meanwhile, cleanup hitter Yordan Alvarez has started to become one of the premier power hitters in the AL. He entered the day ranked among the AL leaders in home runs (second, 15), slugging percentage (fifth, .593) and OPS (.966).
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman is a former Silver Slugger Award winner.
“All heart,” Matheny said of Bubic’s outing. “He did a nice job with pretty much a two-pitch mix today. He threw some nice breaking balls, but the changeup was just a very dominant pitch. He used it in, used it out of the zone. I thought he got better with his fastball even as he got deeper into his pitch count. … He just kept making pitches.”
Bubic recorded each of his first 11 outs, through three scoreless innings and into a fourth, on changeups. He stranded six runners on base through the first four innings, despite just one strikeout.
For the entire outing he recorded 13 of his 15 outs on his changeup. He threw the changeup for half of his pitches (49), according to MLB.com data.
Asked whether the changeup usage was part of the plan coming into the game, Bubic said, “Yes and no. I think spending two and a half weeks down in Triple-A, my mindset was to — I don’t want to say throw less fastballs, but essentially throw less fastballs.”
He added that he could tell early on that he’d have to mix up his pitch usage against that lineup.
Bubic benefitted from an inning-ending double play in the second as well as a diving stop by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. that narrowly got a force out at second base in the third with the bases loaded.
The Astros challenged the play via video play, but the initial call stood upon review.
To end the fourth, second baseman Nicky Lopez ranged a long way to make a barehanded scoop and throw within a split second of the time needed to get Martin Maldonado at first base.
Rough start to the season
Bubic, the 40th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, began the season in the major-league starting rotation. He’d shown enough promise in spring training and had added a fourth pitch to his arsenal (a slider) that the Royals felt he was poised to build upon the potential he’d flashed in the previous two seasons.
Along with Brady Singer, he came into the season as one of the most experienced of their young starting pitching options. Bubic and Singer each jumped levels of the minors — Singer skipped over Triple-A and Bubic skipped Double-A and Triple-A — and made their major-league debuts during the 60-game season in 2020.
But he had struggled repeatedly early this season.
The coaching staff had him stop throwing his slider in order to work out command issues he was having with his other offerings.
Bubic, 24, went 0-3 with a 13.14 ERA in his first five starts. He allowed 18 earned runs, 18 hits and 11 walks (a 2.35 WHIP) in 12 1/3 innings with just eight strikeouts in that span.
Eventually, Bubic moved from the rotation to the bullpen due to ineffectiveness. After his lone relief appearance, he went back to the minors.
He made three starts after being optioned to Triple-A. Greinke’s injury opened a spot in the rotation.
“Being able to relax was the biggest key,” Bubic said. “At the top of all this pitch sequencing and mechanics and all this stuff, your mind is basically your most powerful weapon or your greatest liability. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve taken away from these last couple weeks. I’ll continue to keep that in perspective going forward.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 10:12 PM.
