Kansas City

Royals

Caglianone is heating up. His fourth inning single put his Royals on the board and helped to set up what would become a four-run inning. Then, he homered in his next at-bat on a ball that he hit 110.5 mph that traveled 404 feet. That was his 10th long ball of the season, second in his last two games, and fifth already in June. Over his last 15 games, he has a .306/.374/.514 slash line as it looks like his breakout is finally happening.

Lange was called upon in the midst of a ninth inning rally by the Cardinals that turned this into a save opportunity. Then, he threw a wild pitch and set up Blaze Jordan for a two-run single that cut the Royals’ lead to one. The threat ended there, but we are certain Lange is not a lockdown closer after taking two losses in his last four appearances and letting at least one run come around to score in three of them.

Well, getting a quality start and win here from Lugo was great. It just oddly came with zero strikeouts. In fact, he only forced four total swings-and-misses and no individual pitch had more than one. He’s never had a start without recording at least one strikeout in his entire big league career and now has just 66 through 85 1/3 innings on the season. He’s scheduled to face the Rays on the road next time out and hopefully he can record one punch out against them.

All things considered, that’s very encouraging news. He’ll miss Friday and Saturday’s games at a minimum before being re-evaluated on Sunday, though the Royals are hopeful he’ll be able to avoid a trip to the injured list. Fantasy managers should be able to breathe a major sigh of relief here.

He has now missed three straight games since being diagnosed with left hand soreness. Nick Loftin again mans the hot corner against Cardinals RHP Michael McGreevy.

It would have been surprising if he was, following manager Matt Quatraro telling reporters last night that Witt was heading for additional testing. The 26-year-old superstar’s status for this weekend — at the very least — is firmly in doubt as things stand. Tyler Tolbert is picking up a start at shortstop tonight and batting ninth.

Black had allowed runs in each of his last four outings after starting the year with a 1.86 ERA in 9.2 innings over his first eight appearances. He’ll likely be back up in the near future when the Royals need a fresh arm.

He’ll get the ball tonight against the Cardinals in what should be a decent return spot. Lugo missed a few days on the concussion injured list after leaving his June 10 start due to a Brandon Nimmo line drive off his head.

Aside from that, the Royals’ skipper didn’t have any updates to provide on the status of his franchise cornerstone. It’s possible that they’re just taking every possible precaution here, but fantasy managers should at least prepare for the fact that they could be without Witt for at least the weekend, if not longer.

Loftin doubled in the third inning and was left stranded there. He then smacked a two-run double in the fourth that extended the Royals’ lead to 11-3. He’s seeing increased action at third base while Maikel Garcia is shelved. For the season, he’s hitting .245/.348/.400 with one homer and 20 RBI across 133 plate appearances.