The Kansas City Royals concluded their 10 game home stand on Thursday with a 6-4 win over the Texas Rangers, giving them an 8-2 record over that stretch. Most Royals prognosticators thought that they needed to go 7-3 or 8-2 over this stretch to make up ground in the AL Wild Card race and keep themselves in the playoff hunt. I don’t know if Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino felt that way or not, but the way he was hitting while at Kauffman Stadium, he seemed to think the Royals needed to go 10-0
to stay alive.
Pasquantino hit a cool .306/.350/.889 this homestand, smacking six home runs, including one each game against the Rangers. Royals announcer Jake Eisenberg pointed out that all of the blasts against Texas came in clutch situations:
Thursday’s homer was a great example of how clutch these hits have been. The Royals entered the bottom of the fifth in a 4-4 ballgame that very easily could have been a 4-1 lead if Jonathan India gives a better throw to Bobby Witt Jr or if Witt Jr won his battle versus the sun. As a fan, I was pretty demoralized, particularly because it was the second game in a row that a Royals error had led to Rangers runs. Pasquantino turned things around with the swing of his bat:
That’s really not too bad of a changeup from Jacob Webb, it’s just a really impressive piece of hitting. The only downside of that pitch by Webb was that he had already thrown a changeup in the same spot, so Vinnie had already seen that pitch once, which helped him get a good swing on it.
None of the pitches that Pasquantino hit out of the park against the Rangers were meatballs, and they were four different pitches as well. The southpaw hit a backdoor slider out of the park on Wednesday in the bottom of the first inning:
I’m not a hitting coach by any means, but I know enough to see what an impressive piece of hitting this is. Vinnie is ready for a fastball, but is able to recognize the pitch and keeps his hands and weight back for the slower slider. He then explodes and gets full extension on an outside pitch, pulling the ball in the air. That slider is a little elevated, not exactly where Caleb Boushley wanted it, but it’s still on the outside corner. A player like Maikel Garcia will go with that pitch and try to take it the opposite way (which he’s done a great job of that this year), but Pasquantino has enough power and plate coverage to get his arms extended and send the ball into the right field fountains.
The Rangers were likely working Vinnie outside with breaking pitches because they had already seen the damage he can do on inside fastballs. Pasquantino took advantage of an elevated but inside sinker that Merrill Kelly offered him on Tuesday:
He absolutely tattooed a 94-mph fastball that Jack Leiter threw on the inside part of the plate Monday for a two-run dong:
It’s not exactly bold baseball analysis to say that a hitter with four home runs in four games is locked in, but I think the variety of pitches and locations those home runs came on show that Vinnie is a hitter to be feared right now. He can turn on the inside fastball and keep it fair while also being able to sit on the outside breaking pitch and send it to the seats. His swing looks fast but still under control; on those two fastball home runs in particular he’s not selling out for power, just putting the right swing on the pitch and getting a great result.
Pasquantino had a rough start to the season, sporting a .569 OPS heading into May. Since then, the slugger has stabilized and has put up an .860 OPS in 411 plate appearances. You can’t just wipe away the cold stretch, but since May, Pasquantino has been a true compliment to Witt Jr, who has a .854 OPS on the season. Add in Garcia and the Royals offense looks like it has a young core that can all put up .800 OPS seasons and hit in the middle of the order. Regardless of where this season goes, that’s a great foundation for the Royals to remain competitive while they have an incredible talent in Witt under contract.
At the beginning of the year, I wrote this about Vinnie when he was mired in his slump:
I still would expect much better numbers from the first baseman, but I’m starting to wonder whether his rookie year really will be the best we see from him.
While I still would love to see his 11% walk rate return that he had his rookie season, these 400+ plate appearances have me convinced that Pasquantino is a real middle of the order bat on a contending team. Royals fans were earnestly discussing this spring whether it would make sense to move on from Pasquantino if he ended up as just an okay hitter and Jac Caglianone endedd up being the real deal. Considering the extended run that he’s on, capped off by his performance on this home stand, and that everyone with access to the team talks about his importance as a leader in the clubhouse, the thought of trading Vinnie now instead of figuring out how to make it work with him and Caglianone moving forward seems ludicrous.
Vinnie has a chance to tie the Royals record for home runs in consecutive games, joining Salvador Perez and Mike Sweeney with home runs in five straight games if he can jack another round-tripper against the Detroit Tigers on Friday. Regardless of whether he reaches that record, he’s shown that he’s locked in and ready for the final leg of the regular season. We saw how important he was to the offense last season when we didn’t have Pasquantino in the lineup down the stretch, and he’s showing us once again this summer how important the is to the Royals success.
