After losing the first two games of the series, the Royals bounced back on Wednesday to beat the Reds 3-2, thus avoiding a sweep to start this week’s homestand.
It was a classic 2025 Royals victory on Wednesday night.
The Royals’ pitching staff carried the weight in this one, and opportunistic hitting ended up sealing the deal in a one-run win. It would have been nice to see Kansas City put a few more runs on the board, especially after limiting Reds ace Hunter Greene to only five innings. Still, a win is a win at this point, especially in a tough AL Central.
The Royals have an off day today, so I wanted to share my Royals Three-Star award winners from this recent series against Cincinnati, with two rookies being highlighted.
1st Star: Jonathan India (5 H, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K)
After a lackluster start to the 2025 season, India has suddenly gotten into a groove again, much needed for the Royals at the top of the batting order.
Against his former team, the Royals’ utility player collected five hits, one RBI, and one walk without striking out in 12 plate appearances. It was nice to see India get some payback on his former team in this series after Brady Singer got some revenge against the Royals on Tuesday night, which I unfortunately was in attendance for in the nosebleed section of 407.
India’s wOBA hasn’t been great this season. He currently has a .289 wOBA, which ranks him in the 28th percentile according to TJ Stats. According to his rolling wOBA chart data, he’s been much better after a slow start, though he’s seen a bit of regression before this Reds series.
India has a slash of .267/.351/.360 with a .711 OPS in 97 plate appearances this May. That is much improved from his .186/.297/.244 and .541 OPS marks in 101 plate appearances in April.
Hopefully, the 28-year-old utility player can build on this encouraging May with a solid start to June, with his power metrics being the category that sees the most enormous bounce back. India bringing some pop at the top of the order would help ease the run-producing burden off Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez, and Maikel Garcia.
2nd Star: John Rave (1 H, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 4 K)
Rave had only one hit in this three-game series. However, it was a huge one as it set him up to score the second run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning off Greene.
Rave got a surprise start on Wednesday after Michael Massey was scratched due to ankle soreness, as reported by the Royals’ social media team.
Hopefully, Massey’s injury isn’t anything serious. If he does go on the IL, however, Cam Devanney will likely get the promotion from Triple-A, especially since Devanney can play multiple positions in the infield and is performing well at the plate this season for Omaha.
Massey’s injury allowed an opportunity, though, for Rave, who wasn’t originally in the starting lineup. Not only did he collect his first Major League hit in the Royals’ win, but he also got his first Salvy/QuikTrip splash as well in the postgame interview.
I’m curious to see how much time Rave will get with the Royals. He’s a nice story, but he did have four strikeouts in 11 plate appearances. He looked overwhelmed at times by Major League pitching, especially in the first two games of the Reds series.
That said, he provides solid defense and baserunning, and his double showed that when he’s locked in, he can give some timely hitting, which is what the Royals need. Let’s hope that Rave’s first MLB hit can help him go on a hot streak, starting in the upcoming series against a first-place Detroit Tigers squad.
3rd Star: Noah Cameron (6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K)
Cameron earns his second-straight third-star after winning a massive game on Wednesday to stop the bleeding for the Royals. It’s nice to see Cameron step up as a “series stopper”, especially with Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans on the IL (though Lugo is expected to return on Friday, according to MLB.com writer Anne Rogers).
Cameron did a stellar job flooding the zone against the Reds. He generated 15 called strikes (57.6% zone rate) and had a 25% CSW, despite only sporting an 18% whiff rate. He also limited hard contact, allowing only an average exit velocity of 87.1 MPH on batted balls, resulting in an xwOBACON of .272.
The cutter proved to be Cameron’s best pitch stuff-wise on Wednesday. He threw the pitch 22.8% of the time, and it generated a TJ Stuff+ of 105 and grade of 61. It only produced a whiff rate of 11.1% and a chase rate of 18.2%. That said, Cameron’s cutter minimized productive contact, as evidenced by its .204 xwOBACON.
Here’s how the rest of Cameron’s repertoire fared on Wednesday via TJ Stats.
In addition to notching his second MLB win, Cameron made history again on Wednesday evening, as highlighted by Royals assistant PR director Ian Kraft on social media.
It will be interesting to see what the Royals do with Cameron after not only Lugo, but Ragans returns to the rotation. It seems like Ragans will need a rehab start or two, which likely means Cameron has bought himself more time in the Kansas City rotation.
However, will the Royals demote him to Omaha when Ragans returns? Will the Royals keep Cameron, but put him in the bullpen? Or will they perhaps utilize a six-man rotation to preserve the mileage of their older arms and Ragans, who has had some injury issues in 2025?
Regardless, the Royals are in a good place when it comes to pitching depth, especially with that depth getting fully healthy again (Kyle Wright made a rehab appearance in Northwest Arkansas on May 25th after going back on the IL earlier in the month due to some lingering arm issues).
If the Royals’ bats get going, this Kansas City team could be a force again in the Central, especially with the pitching depth they have (both in the rotation and bullpen), which has been a far cry from what Royals fans have been used to since 2017.
Graphic Credit: Kevin O’Brien and Jared Perkins/Crown Talk Podcast
The pitching depth is a blessing. In theory, we could trade Lugo to a NL wildcard contender for a couple of impact bats. There might be some impact to the rotation, but Wright could slide right into,Lugo’s slot and actually improve some facets of pitching. If one of those bats were a 3b, Massey may be traded too, moving Maikel to 2b and leaving India as a DH to concentrate on OBP.
I’m open to trading Lugo, but would like to see how the pitching depth fares. Ideally, Wright should be able to slide in that slot, but he’s been back and forth with injuries, so I’m not sure that you put him in a heavy usage role just yet. But I agree with Massey, though I’m not sure what his market is right now after such a rough year offensively.