Royals avoid ignominious piece of franchise history by defeating the Dodgers
The ball off Vinnie Pasquantino’s bat had a hang time of 5.2 seconds, but the Dodgers outfielders knew it was headed well beyond the wall in right-center field at Kauffman Stadium.
Pasquatch did his — or should it be its? —usual thing, strolling along the top of the scoreboard in left field following Pasquantino’s three-run home run on Saturday in the fifth inning that helped the Royals beat the Dodgers 9-5.
Pasquantino circled the bases in a touch over 23 seconds, his fastest home-run trot at The K this year. Maybe it was the adrenaline, as Pasquantino helped the Royals avoid an ignominious piece of franchise history.
Pasquantino said he wasn’t sure the ball was gone.
“If you watch the video,” Pasquantino said, “you see I immediately look up at the exit velocity (on the scoreboard), because I hit it, and I’m like, ‘All right, good, that’s in the gap.’ And then I looked up, and I’m like, ‘OK, yeah, I got that one.’ So we’ll take it.”
The victory snapped a five-game skid but more importantly put an end to an abominable 11-game Royals home losing streak all in the month of June. That had tied a franchise record matched twice before, but this year’s team was thrilled to not make history Saturday.
But not content.
“You’ve got to understand, one win doesn’t erase 11 losses, right?” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We have to come out and stack good games together. We talk about this all the time. We weren’t going to get to where we wanted to be today.
“We’re not going to get to whatever our final record is going to be today. But here’s our opportunity to get one game better and we did that today.”
The Royals’ offense showed signs of wiping the sleep out of its eyes after scoring a single run while being swept in a three-game series by the Rays earlier in the week. The Royals, 39-44, have scored 13 runs in two games against the Dodgers after plating 10 in their previous six games combined.
While they had a mere dozen hits in three games against the Rays, the Royals have reached double digits in hits in both games against the Dodgers, including 14 on Saturday.
With one ugly skid ended, the Royals have a chance to end another on Sunday. They have lost seven straight home series since sweeping four from the White Sox (May 5-8).
“It’s a nice team win,” said starting pitcher Seth Lugo, who allowed four hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings. “Everyone in the lineup is doing their part. It’s something we’ve got to build off of, something we actually need to flush and show up again tomorrow.”
LA made the game closer than it was with a four-run ninth inning against Sam Long.
Big games from Vinnie Pasquantino, Bobby Witt Jr.
Pasquantino wasn’t done with the three-run jack. He added a two-run double in the seventh inning. His five-RBI game tied a career high set last year.
It wasn’t just Pasquantino, who had a big day. Second baseman Jonathan India and shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. each had a four-hit game.
India exited in the ninth inning after feeling a little dizzy because of the heat, but Quatraro said it was precautionary.
Catcher Salvador Perez’s seventh-inning RBI double was the 1,643rd hit of his career, tying Alex Gordon for the sixth-most in Royals franchise history.
Subduing Shohei Ohtani
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is the favorite to win a fourth MVP award, but he was held down by the Royals on Saturday in front of a crowd of 36,578.
Ohtani went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. He did, however, throw two scoreless innings to start the game. Ohtani threw three pitches that topped 100 mph on Saturday, including one at 101.7 mph.
Up next: Left-hander Kris Bubic is set to start Sunday’s game, which begins at 1:10 p.m. It’s on FanDuel Sports Kansas City. The Dodgers have not announced a starter for the game.
This story was originally published June 28, 2025 at 5:58 PM.
