Kansas City Royals’ Maikel Garcia watches hit two-run single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo|Charlie Riedel)
It was a balmy 47 degrees at game time and it did not get any warmer as the night grew older. Combine the rainy/snow mist falling and it felt more like a postseason game than a game in early April.
It was no where near baseball weather, but the Royals made it work for them. The ball wasn’t traveling far on Friday night, but in baseball it’s not always how far you hit it but where you hit it. The Royals embodied that approach and found simply “hit it where they ain’t” as the old baseball adage goes.
The final score made it look like a laugher but this game was anything but.
Salvy got the scoring started early with a ball that left fielder Heston Kjerstad let fall in front of him (weather may have been a factor) as Bobby Witt Jr scored all the way from first with two outs in the 1st.
Maikel Garcia stayed red hot and was the bus driver for the offense in this one. When the Royals needed a big hit, he came through. He flipped a 2-1 Orioles lead in the 4th and put the Royals up by 1.
There was no scoring until Maikel came back up to the plate with an RBI chance in the 8th and he came through again and gave the Royals an important insurance run.
The K was already in a frenzy after Maikel’s big RBI just a few batters earlier. Then Vinnie Pasquantino sent a ball into the misty grey sky (I thought it was going foul live when I saw it live, and the Orioles probably did too) and it dropped in and scored three.
That effectively put the game out of reach and have the Royals the W.
Maikel Garcia gets the “Dude of the night” for his 3 RBI night but it was when those RBIs came that cemented him as my player of the game. He had a crucial error in the 1st inning and that could have buried him for the rest of the game. Instead, he made up for that mistake every chance he got and was the main reason the Royals won the game.
Seth Lugo was a stabilizing presence for the Royals which is exactly what they needed. The starting pitching hasn’t been sharp to begin the year, and more than anything the Royals needed someone to go at least six innings.
Lugo wasn’t great but he was good enough to get the job done and kept the Orioles off balance enough to keep them at bay.
Next up for the Royals is a matchup with Tomoyuki Sugano (0-1) 4.50 ERA. Sugano is a 35-year old rookie who last played in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants. The Royals have historically not played well against pitchers they’ve never seen, let’s see if the can change that narrative on Saturday.
Bank On It! 
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