KANSAS CITY -- If there is a baseball Twilight Zone, Vinnie Pasquantino has now entered it.
The Royals rookie now has two home runs in his Major League career, the latest a 400-foot blast during the Royals’ 3-1 win in Game 1 of Monday’s doubleheader against the Tigers at Kauffman Stadium.
Both of these home runs have …
- Come against the Tigers.
- Been hit off Detroit right-hander Michael Pineda.
- Come in the fourth inning of the game.
- Been hit on the first pitch.
- Come on 89 mph fastballs.
The only difference was that his first came on July 1 at Comerica Park, while the second came Monday at Kauffman Stadium.
And he was able to jog around the bases on Monday instead of what happened on his first home run, when the ball hit the top of the right field wall at Comerica Park and Pasquantino was tagged "out" at second base before Javier Báez told him to finish running the bases.
“No,” Pasquantino said when asked if he was aware of the bizarre circumstances of both of his home runs. “I was just happy this one went over the fence and stayed over the fence. I got to jog around the bases the whole time.
“Well, for a little bit -- for a second -- I thought it might go off the wall, so in the video of me running, you see me kind of sprint for about a half-second, and then I realized it’s going to go.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Pasquantino is the first player to hit his first two career home runs off the same pitcher and in the same inning of different games since Bronson Arroyo in 2006 (third innings, off Glendon Rusch).
Pasquantino is also the third Royal to hit his first two career home runs off the same pitcher, following Jim Rooker, who hit his first two off Jim Kaat in the same game on July 7, 1969, and Brandon Berger, who hit his first two home runs off Mark Buehrle on Sept. 23, 2001, and Sept. 29, 2001.
Want to get even weirder? The only two players this season to have hit their first two home runs off the same pitcher are Pasquantino and the Cubs’ P.J. Higgins -- both of whom played college baseball at Old Dominion University.
Strange circumstances aside, Pasquantino’s day helped the Royals win and back up Brad Keller’s excellent start of seven innings and one-run ball. Keller mowed through Detroit’s lineup with eight strikeouts, finishing with a 73.6% strike rate and first-pitch strikes against 18 of 26 batters.
“Whenever you got a good feel of your fastball, you can just go after guys,” Keller said after his 100th career start.. “Especially on a hot day like today, didn’t want the defense to stay out there too long, just tried to go after guys. Strike one was really important today.”
After Keller’s lone wild pitch led to a run scored in the sixth inning, Bobby Witt Jr. singled and stole his 15th base with one out in the bottom of the sixth to put a runner in scoring position for Pasquantino.
He didn’t ambush the first pitch this time, taking a ball before getting into a 2-1 count. Then he poked an opposite-field single into left field to score Witt and give the Royals the lead and give Pasquantino the first multi-hit game of his career.
That approach is why Pasquantino is considered a top prospect -- along with his ability to crush pitches 400-plus feet.
“What he does really well is really understands his strike zone,” manager Mike Matheny said. “That’s going to serve him really well in this game for a long time. And then you get into those really good counts or you find certain pitches that you can ambush and get the head out to where you can do damage -- to have both those tools is very unique.”
Pasquantino mentioned he wished he would have swung at the outside fastball Pineda threw in the first inning against him, but he took it for called strike three. He recognized it was too close to take -- something that happens often when facing Major League pitchers who know how to control the strike zone.
The 24-year-old has learned that quickly in his first three weeks in the big leagues and is adjusting accordingly, another sign that he’s going to help the Royals’ offense now and in the future.
“I wish I had tried to foul that off or do something with it,” Pasquantino said. “But the second at-bat, felt like I saw it pretty good and was able to get a good swing off. I was pretty happy about that. And the third at-bat, I was really happy with being able to stay on it and then go the other way, because it’s been something I’ve wanted to do. It’s something I know I can do. And I finally did it, and I’m happy about that.”