Thomas' 1st-inning grand slam helps Royals flip calendar in style

CINCINNATI – For a month, a lot went wrong for the Royals. On the first day of a new month, almost everything went their way. And the Royals took a collective deep breath after breaking through with a much-needed win.

Lane Thomas belted his third career grand slam and Jac Caglianone added a two-run shot in support of five strong innings from Luinder Avila to power the Royals past the Reds, 9-2, Monday night in the series opener at Great American Ball Park.

Avila (1-2), making just his second start in 24 career appearances, recorded his second career win and set career highs in innings (5), pitches (86) and strikeouts (5) while holding the Reds to just one run on two hits (one home run). Avila entered the fifth inning at 68 pitches, needing three outs for his second career win and first of 2026.

But it wasn’t easy. Avila walked Matt McLain on four pitches and went 2-0 and 3-1 on Blake Dunn. He was already at 75 pitches, and the clock was ticking. But showing the kind of grit and determination that the Royals and Avila believe he has, the right-hander fanned Dunn and then JJ Bleday, who homered off of him in the first. Avila was at 83 pitches and had one more batter left in the mind of Royals skipper Matt Quatraro.

“I wanted to give him that chance, not just him, but for the team, so you're not using guys for multiple innings out of the bullpen and all this stuff that goes along with it, the ripple effect,” Quatraro said. “But we weren't going to push it too much further. That was going to be his last hitter.”

On the third pitch to Reds rookie phenom Sal Stewart, Avila threw a slider that induced a forceout at second, and he could finally take a deep breath. The only real blemishes were the four walks to go with five strikeouts that drove his pitch count up prematurely.

“I have to keep the walks down,” Avila said through interpreter and strength coach Luis Perez. “That's going to help me be an elite starter and go deeper into the games.”

Also allowing Avila to breathe was the first-inning grand slam from Lane Thomas, when Reds starter and opener Lyon Richardson (0-1) was one out from escaping the bases-loaded jam with no damage.

“I got their support, so I felt like I didn't want to let anybody down, and I felt like I had to support them, and went out to compete,” Avila said.

In snapping a six-game skid, the Royals won for just the fourth time in their last 20 games. Kansas City, which entered with the fewest runs scored (221) in MLB, scored eight runs for just the second time since May 1.

Cincinnati was forced to scratch ace starter Chase Burns (7-1, 1.96 ERA), who had to miss the start due to illness, and the Royals took full and immediate advantage.

Thomas crushed a first-pitch 95.7 mph fastball to left for a grand slam. The ball left the bat at an estimated 106.3 mph and traveled a Statcast-projected 409 feet, careening off the message board in left-center field.

“I think it was good for us to get out ahead in a game early, and just give everybody a little breather for a minute,” said Thomas, who combined with CJ Abrams to spoil Richardson’s MLB debut with a pair of first-inning homers on his first two pitches on Aug. 6, 2023, when he was with the Nationals.

“Yeah, I remembered facing him. I think he pitches a little differently than he did back then, so I made sure I looked at all that stuff before,” Thomas said. “But yeah, I remember that game.”

Avila’s only mistake was leaving a full-count four-seam fastball over the middle of the plate to the red-hot Bleday in the bottom of the first. Bleday put the 97.9 mph heater into the seats in right for his 10th homer of the season.

Brandon Leibrandt, son of former Royals and Reds pitcher Charlie, pitched a scoreless fourth before surrendering a two-run homer to Caglianone in the fifth after a Bobby Witt Jr. double. Michael Massey added a solo shot to right in the seventh.

The game was a matchup of teams who struggled in May. The Royals were 10-18 while the Reds were just one loss better at 10-17.

“Yeah, it's big, but you know we got 100 games left,” Thomas said. “We're going to win a lot of games, so I think everybody's got to be ready for it.”