PHOENIX -- After helping turn a slick double play to end the bottom of the third inning on Friday night, Vinnie Pasquantino gave his starter a quick bump of encouragement, telling Kris Bubic to “relax a bit” after seeing the Royals’ lefty get frustrated with himself walking off the mound.
In a season defined by the Royals’ stellar pitching staff often picking up the offense -- or, more often, the offense not doing enough to pick up the stellar pitching -- the roles were reversed Friday night in Kansas City’s 9-3 series-opening win over the D-backs at Chase Field.
It was the Royals who brought the blasts and boom before the D-backs opened their retractable roof for a Fourth of July fireworks show. Coming off a four-game series split in Seattle in which they scored 13 runs and hit .189 (25-for-132) with a .529 OPS, the Royals knocked 14 hits on Friday night, six for extra bases.
Pasquantino’s two-homer night was a big part of that, and he wanted to give some assurance to Bubic, who struggled with pitch execution at the start of Friday’s game.
Even though Bubic had given up two runs in the first inning, the Royals had already put up six runs against D-backs starter Eduardo Rodriguez by the third. Pasquantino’s second home run of the night gave them eight runs through the fourth inning. Bubic needed to clear his head, go on the attack and not worry so much about being perfect.
Message received. Bubic responded with an eight-pitch fourth inning and finished his night after seven innings with three runs allowed.
“It definitely helps to be able to relax after they’re doing their job and putting up runs at the rate they were, hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Bubic said. “... After that, we still gave up some hits here and there, but I think I was just in a lot better frame of mind than I was earlier, maybe first time through the order.”
Entering Friday’s start, Bubic had gotten 36 runs of support in 96 innings (16 starts) for a 3.38 run support average. The Royals have given Bubic one or zero runs of support in five of his last six starts.
Friday was the opposite; the Royals jumped out to a 3-0 lead three batters into the game, when Pasquantino crushed a fastball 394 feet to right field for a three-run home run.
“With how good our pitching staff is -- when you feel good with one run, and then to be able to put up three, it’s just kind of like, ‘Look at us, we just scored three in one inning,’” Pasquantino said. “We’ve been having a hard time scoring three in a game. So being able to do that is nice.
“And then I think the best part was being able to respond again in the second with more runs. It’s one thing to do it once, but then to be able to keep stacking runs was really good.”
Pasquantino’s RBI single in the second was part of a three-run inning, and his 401-foot two-run home run in the fourth -- which brought his season total to a team-high 14 -- gave him a career-high six RBIs. Mark Canha joined in on the party with his first home run of the season in the fifth inning.
Friday marked Pasquantino’s second career multi-homer game, a feat he first accomplished Aug. 1, 2024. Rodriguez was just the second left-handed pitcher Pasquantino has homered off of this year.
This is what the Royals need Pasquantino to do in the middle of their order, and it helps that Jonathan India and Bobby Witt Jr. have gotten on at a more consistent clip recently. India was on base four times Friday, while Witt knocked three hits in the first four innings.
“It can be a huge lift to us and a huge blow to the opposition -- those three-run homers or two-run homers are a big difference maker,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “We know [Pasquantino] has the power. It’s when he’s not searching for it that it tends to come out more.”
The Royals’ offensive issues have been well-documented, but Friday was a glimpse into how this lineup can click. Even better, how it can support a starter who might not have been happy with his specific performance -- but ecstatic for the Royals’ win.
“Given the work that the offense did early, I just didn’t want that to go to waste,” Bubic said. “Let [Arizona] fall back in it. But they did a good job extending the lead, and that’s our brand of baseball when we’re playing well. It’s a lot more comfortable pitching with an early lead.”