In a matchup of kitchen sink junkballers, only one team was able to make anything happen in a low-scoring 3-1 Royals loss. Seth Lugo gave up a two-run home run to Willson Contreras in the sixth inning, his 10th homer of the season, and that was 50% of the runs scored from either team the whole game. That home run now also represents 50% of the home runs given up by Lugo all season. Coincidences!
That’s not to say Lugo was bad. He wasn’t. Both these guys were throwing all their junk. MLB Statcast picked
up 8 different pitch types from Lugo and 6 from Sonny Gray. Gray’s was much more effective, though. His top pitch thrown was his four-seam fastball, but the sweeper was just behind it. He got 13 swings against the sweeper and 7 whiffs!
Gray had the entire Royals offense fooled (especially Isaac Collins), except for Jac Caglianone. Cags hit a couple missiles, including a double that brought in Carter Jensen in the 7th for the Royals’ first, and only, run of the night. The Royals threatened in the fifth too, with Michael Massey on second base. On a grounder through the hole between third base and shortstop, Massey was waved home (in what seemed to me like a late signal). The play at the plate was close, but Masataka Yoshida made a good throw that beat Massey to the plate. The slide looked very awkward, and it was the kind of slide that could tweak a bad back. Massey has a bad back. Oof.
Gray finished with 6 innings pitched and a season-high 9 strikeouts among 5 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run. It was easily his best start of 2026.
Lugo did not strike out as many guys as Gray (5), but he similarly limited any scoring threats by preventing hard contact, with the one exception involving Contreras. Lugo pitched 6 innings and gave up 5 hits, 2 runs, and 2 walks amid those 5 strikeouts.
Not that it ended up mattering, but Alex Lange gave up the third run in the 7th. He gave up a leadoff double, and then Nick Sogard put down a nice bunt that was just far enough that Lange couldn’t get it. Too short for Garcia to get it in time – Sogard was safe at first. Jarren Duran hit a can of corn fly ball to left field that was deep enough to score the runner on a sac fly.
Aroldis Chapman set down the Royals in order in the ninth inning. Quietly. The game started early due to the threat of bad weather, and both teams played like they wanted to be in bed reading a book by the time the weather hit. I guess I can’t blame them. As I type this, I do see tornado warnings on the front end of the storm.
Of note: Salvy had two ABS challenges on consecutive pitches that were overturned. A 2-0 count switched to 0-2. Salvy’s pretty good at this. That and Cags’ hard contact might be the only high points for the Royals from this game. Oof.
The Royals move to 20-28. The Red Sox are now 20-27. They play each other again tomorrow at 6:40pm US Central.
