Kris Bubic has stellar outing and Salvador Perez leads home run barrage in Royals win
Left-hander Kris Bubic turned in his best start of the season for the Kansas City Royals, and Salvador Perez, Andrew Benintendi and Hunter Dozier backed him up with home runs Monday night to get the last leg of their West Coast swing started off in grand fashion.
The Royals never trailed and shook off a scoreless outing the previous day by collecting 11 hits, including three home runs, in a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels in the first game of a three-game series in front of an announced 22,234 at Angel Stadium.
The Royals (24-42) have won four of their last five games, and their starting pitchers posted a 1.84 ERA in the first seven games of their road trip.
“To go 3-0 to that first hitter then fight his way back into that count and then it took him 24 (pitches) to get through that first, but he kept challenging,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Bubic. “To come back with a zero after we scored a couple runs was huge.
“Then I thought he just got better. Really no troubles at all until the fifth. Then in the sixth, he strikes out the side. I think he looked as strong as ever, but his pitch count got up at that point.”
Bubic, a California native and former Stanford standout, got roughed up badly by the Angels on the road last season. He gave up six earned runs in four innings and gave up four home runs, including a first-inning moonshot by eventual MVP Shohei Ohtani, in an 8-1 loss.
“Yeah, when I came out here last year this was probably the first outing that I really got it handed to me a little bit,” Bubic said. “I didn’t forget that. Coming out here to the West Coast again, I wanted to make sure to, one, just pitch better for myself. But, you know, for the family and friends and for the team, just because I got maybe in a predictable rhythm last year.”
Bubic (1-4) made it through six full innings for the first time this season and struck out a season-high seven to record the quality start. He threw 95 pitches (60 strikes), walked two and gave up six hits.
Bubic got 14 swings and misses on Monday night, his most in any start this season.
“I think it was just attacking with all three pitches, being able to mix those as consistently as I was and Salvy kind of keeping me in check to make sure we keep throwing this and we keep throwing this to make sure everything stays available, stays fresh to each hitter,” Bubic said.
Benintendi’s third homer of the season, a 399-foot blast to right field, gave the Royals an early two-run advantage. Benintendi hammered a first-pitch fastball after Whit Merrifield reached on a single to start the game.
The Angles (33-37) cut the deficit in half in the third inning when Taylor Ward belted a one-out solo home run into the left field stands. He jumped on a first-pitch changeup.
Andrew Velazquez scored the tying run in the fifth after he singled, stole second and scored on Ward’s RBI single.
Bubic stranded a runner on in the fifth and struck out the side in the sixth to finish his outing. The Royals grabbed the lead in the top of the seventh to put Bubic in line for his first win of the season.
“I think it was one of his best this year,” Perez said of Bubic. “But he was good his last three, four, five starts. He was good. He made some pretty good adjustments when he got sent down. And that’s him. That’s the kind of pitcher he is.”
Nicky Lopez’s seventh-inning RBI double was the first hit with runners in scoring position for the Royals since Saturday. They went 0 for 9 in those situations on Sunday and stranded 11 men on base in a shutout loss to the Athletics.
Dozier singled, stole second base and scored on Lopez’s double.
“We were grinding at-bats the whole day, and Bubic was grinding on the mound,” Lopez said. “So it was good to come through in that situation and put us up, and we were able to shut it out from then on.”
The Royals added to the lead in the eighth with a two-run homer by Perez off Angels starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard after Benintendi singled and stole second. That was Perez’s team-leading 11th homer of the season. Dozier added a solo homer two batters later, his seventh.
Benintendi (2 for 4, home run, two RBI, a walk and two runs scored), Dozier (2 for 4), Lopez (2 for 4, double) and Michael A. Taylor (2 for 4) had two hits apiece.
“Obviously, I think we’re a different team when (the starters) — any team probably is — when the starter goes deeper into the game,” Benintendi said. “When we can get runs early for him, I think it gives him more confidence to go out there and pitch with a lead. So it’s definitely something we want to do more often. Maybe this will start a trend for the offense scoring early.”
This story was originally published June 20, 2022 at 11:44 PM.