Royals’ Jonathan India shares inside look at his RBI single on a 10-pitch at-bat
Runs didn’t come in droves for the Royals during their four-game series against Minnesota. But they did put up a crooked number in the seventh during a 3-2 win at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday.
Two.
That’s not big, but it was enough to clinch a second straight series victory for the Royals, who won three of four from the Twins after taking two of three from the Orioles last weekend.
The Royals scored just nine runs in the four games against Minnesota, but came up with clutch plate appearances Thursday when it mattered most.
The Royals trailed 2-1 in the seventh inning but had runners on the corners with one out when third baseman Jonathan India stepped to the plate. He delivered a game-tying single after a 10-pitch at-bat.
Bobby Witt Jr. followed with a sacrifice fly that scored the winning run.
India was ahead in the count 3-1 when he took a called strike on a four-seam fastball from the Twins’ Cole Sands. That’s when India changed his approach.
“I shorten up a little more. I want to kind of just put a better swing on the ball rather than free swing a little bit, swing a little harder with no strikes or one,” India said. “But with two strikes, I’m kind of just trying to stay up the middle, hit the ball on a line somewhere.”
Sands then threw three straight four-seam fastballs on the inner half of the plate (pitches six, seven and eight), and India fouled off each of them.
On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Sands tried a cutter away and India managed to get a piece of the ball.
“The cutter away I was trying to foul off, because that was just a pitch I couldn’t square up, so I didn’t want to let him have a strike if it was a strike,” India said. “It was probably way outside.”
Statcast showed the pitch was on the outer corner of the plate and would have been strike three, so fouling off that pitch kept India alive.
Pitch No. 10 was another four-seam fastball on the inside, but this time India singled to left and Freddy Fermin trotted home with the tying run.
“He was heavy fastball, but I had in my mind the cutter, because that’s his pitch,” India said. “But I could tell he wanted me to ground out into a double play. So I was like if it’s in, just turn on and put a good swing on it, so I did.”
And that started the Royals on their way to a game- and series-clinching victory.
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM.
