Royals prospect Jac Caglianone was ejected from a game, then struck out swinging
Jac Caglianone, the power-hitting top prospect for the Royals, smacked a three-run home run Friday night for Double-A Northwest Arkansas, and video was widely shared by Kansas City fans.
But later in the game, Caglianone did the seemingly impossible. He struck out swinging after leaving the game.
It’s not that Caglianone wanted to leave. He was ejected from the Naturals’ 5-3 loss to the Wichita Wind Surge.
After Caglianone’s three-run blast broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, Wichita put up a five-spot in the top of the seventh. That was the only scoring in the game.
Caglianone led off in the bottom of the ninth and was called for a pitch-clock violation, which put him in an 0-1 hole. Caglianone briefly pleaded his case, but it was to no avail. The next pitch was swung on and missed, making it an 0-2 count.
As he stepped back into the batter’s box, Caglianone apparently said something that home plate umpire Chad Patterson didn’t like. Patterson ejected Caglianone.
Justin Johnson was called upon to finish the plate appearance. He fouled off a pitch, took a ball and then struck out swinging. But because Caglianone already had two strikes on him when he left the game, the swinging strikeout was his.
How weird is that?
Here’s how the plate appearance looked on the Milb.com website.
This was Caglianone’s three-run homer earlier in the game.
This story was originally published May 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM.
