KANSAS CITY -- In the bottom of the first inning Saturday night, Vinnie Pasquantino was having trouble slowing his heart rate, seeing straight and keeping the contents of his stomach down, the latter of which he failed to do but at least made it off the field first.
By the end of the Royals’ 6-2 win over the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium, Pasquantino was debating with his manager (by way of the media) whether he would have scored from first on Maikel Garcia’s double in the fifth inning like John Rave, Pasquantino’s replacement, did to help Kansas City’s offense break the game open.
The takeaway: Pasquantino is just fine and feeling much more like himself after exiting early with a heat-related illness on a hot, muggy mid-August evening that saw the heat index creep into the low 100s on Saturday.
“I kind of blacked out my first at-bat, or my only at-bat,” Pasquantino said postgame. “I was kind of moving around weird because I was trying to figure out what was going on. I wasn’t very comfortable. Some things were happening. And basically couldn’t slow my heart rate down. I think [manager Matt Quatraro] kind of hinted at it, but I think five seconds after I struck out, I puked all over the bathroom in there, which was cool.”
During what was a nine-pitch at-bat against Chicago starter Sean Burke, Pasquantino fouled off the sixth pitch -- a 97 mph fastball -- but then walked around the plate and behind home-plate umpire Adam Hamari as if in discomfort. That prompted a visit from Quatraro and head athletic trainer Kyle Turner, concerned about Pasquantino’s shoulder, or back, or oblique.
“He said, ‘I guarantee it’s not that, I just feel off,’” Quatraro said, noting that he was relieved it wasn’t an injury that would keep Pasquantino, an integral piece of this lineup, out for long.
Pasquantino stayed in for three more pitches, including a couple of big swings on the eighth and ninth pitches. He fouled off a 95 mph fastball and shrugged his shoulders like he felt something off, then struck out on an 81 mph curveball.
After Salvador Perez struck out to end the inning, Pasquantino didn’t head back on the field with the rest of the Royals’ infield. Instead, Nick Loftin moved from left field to first base, and John Rave entered in left field and Pasquantino’s spot in the batting order.
“I prepared myself well for the game today, but when it hit me, it hit me,” Pasquantino said. “I don’t really know how to explain it. That’s never happened to me before. I was having a tough time seeing. It was a weird situation.
“But we got John Rave.”
Indeed, Rave stepped right in, homering in the third inning to keep the pressure on the White Sox.
Mike Yastrzemski, who opened the scoring with a leadoff homer, walked to lead off the fifth inning, and Rave followed with a bunt single. When Garcia smoked the double out to the left-center wall, Rave took off and scored from first -- a heads-up baserunning play on a night in which the Royals made three outs on the bases.
“I don’t think Vinnie would have done that,” a smirking Quatraro said of Rave’s baserunning.
Rave certainly offers a different skillset than his run-producing, slugging teammate but kept things civil after the game.
“Hey, I don’t know,” Rave said. “Vinnie is sneaky fast. We’ll never know.”
Pasquantino was quick to say he thinks he definitely would have scored in that situation.
“Well, we can agree to disagree,” Pasquantino said, tongue in cheek, when it was pointed out to him that his manager disagrees. “It’s healthy to have disagreements within the clubhouse. But what matters is that Rave did score. So we can argue [whether] I would have scored or not, probably not, but I think I would have.”
Right -- that’s the other, more important takeaway from Saturday. The Royals took care of business against the White Sox (44-79) with a series win and moved above .500 (62-61) for the first time since June 10.
The offense gave the Royals’ pitching staff a sizable lead to work with, and the White Sox were held quiet despite a laborious four innings and 82 pitches from Michael Lorenzen in his return from the 15-day injured list (left oblique strain), making his first start since July 6 in Arizona.
Saturday was the Royals’ first win in an attempt to get over .500 since April 30 at Tampa Bay (16-15), snapping a five-game losing streak when entering a game at .500.