After losing two of three in the I-70 Series at home at Kauffman Stadium in May, the Royals came back to win two of three at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Honestly, the Royals should have swept, but the bullpen failed to hold the lead on multiple occasions, which led to an extra-innings loss in the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday.
Thankfully, a potent offense and a much better offensive performance in game two made up for Cole Ragans’ rusty start. In his first start off the IL, the Royals ace only went three innings and allowed five runs on five hits and three walks (he did strike out four). It was an inefficient performance, though his stuff indeed rated well via TJ Stats (as I highlighted on Twitter).
Even though Ragans was chased early, the Royals’ bullpen and offense stepped up in their 7-5 win.
On the pitching end, not only did Carlos Estevez bounce back after blowing the save in game one, but Angel Zerpa carried the Royals’ pitching in the middle innings. In three innings of work, he allowed no runs, one hit, and one walk while striking out four. His TJ Stuff and Statcast metrics were also impressive from the outing.
After posting a 6.35 ERA and 1.59 WHIP in 11.1 IP in May, Zerpa is posting a 0.00 ERA and 0.75 WHIP in 5.1 IP in June. He may have reclaimed his role as the top leverage lefty in the Royals bullpen from Daniel Lynch IV, especially since Lynch is posting a 5.40 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in 1.2 IP in June.
While the Royals’ bullpen deserved praise in Games 1 and 3, overall, the Royals’ offense made significant strides against the Cardinals. Thus, three Royals hitters earn the top three stars in this week’s edition of Crown Talk’s Three Stars, with Kansas City’s top-three batters in the batting order being the ones who primarily stood out.
First Star: Bobby Witt Jr. (4 H, 3 1B, 1 HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 SB)
All the hype in this series was focused on rookie Jac Caglianone, and rightfully so after the slugger’s strong start this year in Omaha and Northwest Arkansas. While the rookie did get his first career hit (a double) and RBI, he went 1-for-13 in the series with three strikeouts and no walks.
Conversely, the Royals’ franchise player ended up having a stellar series, which helped Kansas City steal the series from their Eastern Missouri neighbor.
Witt started the series with a bang, launching a home run in the first inning on June 3rd off Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante.
If that wasn’t enough, Witt stuffed the stat sheet in nearly every category in this series.
In addition to his home run, the Royals’ shortstop collected four hits, four RBI, scored four runs, and stole a base. He also drew three walks, including an intentional walk. He also flashed incredible defense, as evidenced by this diving play he had on an Ivan Herrera line drive that prevented a run.
The only blemish with Witt’s profile from this series was that he struck out five times in 15 plate appearances. According to Fangraphs, his strikeout rate has increased to 18.8%, which is 3.8% higher than it was a year ago. He is also whiffing 24.2% this year, with his whiff rate being much higher against breaking balls (27.7%) and off-speed (30.6%) pitches.
However, when examining his Statcast metrics via TJ Stats, there’s a lot of gold in his metrics (and not much blue), which is a good sign (gold indicates that he ranks in the upper percentiles of the league).
Although the surface-level metrics aren’t as impressive as they were a year ago, much of the underlying data suggests that Bobby is as strong as ever and is due for positive regression.
This series against St. Louis may have been that much-needed step for Bobby and his quest for a big summer on the hitting end.
Second Star: Vinnie Pasquantino (7 H, 6 1B, 1 2B, 1 R, 5 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K)
Let’s face it: Vinnie may be a slow starter at the plate.
In April, many Royals fans were wondering if Vinnie was not going to live up to the promise of what he demonstrated a season ago (19 HR, 64 RBI, 108 wRC+). In 107 plate appearances in April, he was only hitting .172 with a .507 OPS. However, since May, it’s been an upward trajectory for the Royals’ first baseman.
In May, he hit .330 with an .839 OPS and four home runs in 120 plate appearances. In June, he has hit .444 with a .974 OPS in 19 plate appearances. Against the Cardinals, not only did he have seven hits and five RBI, but he also didn’t strike out at all (though he didn’t walk either).
Vinnie is still having issues barreling and launching the ball, based on his TJ Stats data. However, he’s still hitting the ball hard and doing everything else well at the plate.
Another encouraging aspect about Vinnie’s performance this year is that he’s playing better defense at first base. After posting a -3 OAA in 2023, he posted a +3 OAA in 2024 and has a +4 OAA in 2025. In 2024, he had that mark in 247 defensive attempts. This year? He’s had a better OAA in only 92.
Vinnie also ranks in the top five in first baseman DRS, as highlighted by Thomas Nestico of TJ Stats this morning on Twitter.
Royals fans have known Vinnie for his ability to drive in runs with runners in scoring position. Now, we may have to recognize him more for his stellar defensive play at first base.
Third Star: Jonathan India (6 H, 5 1B, 1 HR, 5 R, 2 RBI, 1 SF, 0 BB, 0 K)
I’ll be honest, I was ready to give up on India by mid-May. He was frustrating in the field (especially in left field and third base), and he wasn’t doing nearly enough offensively to make up for it.
That said, he’s off to a scorching start in June, which has given more hope to me and Royals fans that he may be the solution at leadoff.
This month, he’s hitting .333 with an .816 OPS in 19 plate appearances, an early improvement from his May (.266 average and .694 OPS) and April (.186 average and .541 OPS). Against the Cardinals this week, he had six hits, scored five runs, collected two RBI, had a sacrifice fly, and hit his second home run of he year, a leadoff bomb in game two against Miles Mikolas.
India has stopped moving around the field as much recently, as Matt Quatraro has opted for more usage of Michael Massey in left field and Maikel Garcia at third base than India at either position. India has pretty much stayed at second when he’s in the field, which was his position with the Reds.
Since May 12th, according to Fangraphs, he has only started at 2B or DH. Over that 18-game stretch, the 28-year-old is slashing .296/.346/.366 with a .712 OPS, .319 wOBA and 101 wRC+. He is also putting up a 0.50 BB/K ratio with only a 10.3% strikeout rate.
The Royals were probably hoping for more positional versatility from India when they acquired him this offseason. However, the positional stability has helped him more at the plate, and his offense is what the Royals need most from him right now, especially at the leadoff spot.
Graphic Credit: Kevin O’Brien and Jared Perkins/Crown Talk Podcast