This was the ballgame you were looking for

The Royals administer a beatdown in Milwaukee with Total Baseball: Good starting pitching, big hits and a lot of fun.

It took four games, but the Royals finally put everything together. A starting pitcher who shoved. The bullpen to shut it down and secure the win. And an offense that consistently came up with the big hit. Throw those ingredients in a blender and you have the best win of this young season: an 11-1 beatdown of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The season is young, but this was easily the best game they’ve played of the four thus far. Always good to have one of these types of games in the win column early in the season.

And Milwaukee…Whew. They’ve played four games and the 11 runs they allowed on Monday was the third lowest amount they’ve surrendered this season. That’s suboptimal. Of course, the Brewers fell prey to the Yankees in the season’s first weekend and their newfangled torpedo bats. Hmmm…Maybe it wasn’t the bats.

If you were looking for a statement of intent from Kris Bubic, making his first start since April of 2023, you didn’t have to wait long. He began his afternoon by punching out Jackson Chourio on four pitches.

Bubic then set down Christian Yellich on three pitches, finishing him off with a lethal sweeper.

After that, Wilson Contreras put up a bit more of a fight, lasting five pitches before succumbing to a four-seamer. Three up, three down for Bubic, all down swinging.

That was just a prelude to Bubic’s afternoon, where he routinely stymied Brewers hitters. The velocity gain on the four-seamer he flashed coming out of the bullpen last season in his first action since coming back from Tommy John surgery proved sticky—his average fastball rode in at 92.5 mph and topped out at 95.3 mph. He registered 11 whiffs on the pitch. Eleven! He kept the pitch elevated, which is what he will want to do and even got some elevated chase on the offering.

What intrigued me the most while watching the game was how the four-seamer played off the sweeper/slider combination Bubic was showing. Or maybe it was the other way around with the sweepers and sliders playing off the four-seam.

Whatever, man. It just worked.

While he was elevating the fastball, he was likewise keeping his sweeper up in the zone. The GIF above of the sweeper against Yellich isn’t the best representation of how Bubic was locating that particular pitch. This one against Vinny Capra is much better.

According to Anne Rogers, this approach—putting the sweeper in the middle of the zone—was intentional:

“I’m trying to throw like middle-up sweepers so guys almost get under it and get weak contact,” Bubic said. “I think we just did a good job of getting ahead of guys and keeping them on their toes.”

As for the weak contact, I’m not sure I’ve seen a starter go this long (Bubic went six innings and faced 24 batters) and allow just one hard-hit ball all game. And the hard-hit ball barely qualified! A 98 mph ground ball off the bat of Rhys Hoskins in the second inning.

With the action of the sweeper, it’s easy to see why it can be so tempting as an elevated offering, yet so difficult to square up. It’s a pitch that has some quality vertical break along with glove-side run. It contrasts to his slider, which has less vertical break and almost no run. If the hitter recognizes the change in velocity from the four-seam, he has to basically guess as to what the pitch is going to do. Is it going to break sharply or will it feature more dive than run? Good luck.

The Brewers’ average exit velocity against Bubic on the afternoon was 77.8 mph. Hey, damage can be done with weak contact. Bubic got into a spot of trouble in the second, allowing back-to-back infield singles after walking Sal Frelick. That loaded the bases with two out. Bubic got out of it, inducing a ground ball to first on a slider. A nice fielding play by Mark Canha helped retire the side.

It was just a dominant outing from Bubic. The Bubic we were dreaming on back in 2023, before he was lost to injury. He’s back. It was exactly what the Royals needed.

There is so much to note on the offensive side. First, how good was it to see Jonathan India back in the lineup after taking a 99 mph cutter off the helmet on Sunday? He got the offense rolling in the first inning, lacing a single to left. He came around to score on Michael Massey’s opposite-field ground rule double.

India added two more singles, scored twice and drove in a pair. He’s reached base three times in three consecutive games. In 2024, Royals leadoff hitters reached base three or more times just 14 times. I think we’re going to like this guy.

To cap the scoring in the first, Hunter Refroe (yes, Hunter Renfroe!) looped a single to left to bring home Bobby Witt Jr. and Massey. That gave the Royals their early 3-0 advantage.

Do I dare fall for Maikel Garcia again? It’s not a rhetorical question.

I bought into him last year based on his hot start at the plate and, wouldn’t you know, it’s at it again. He crushed a 428-foot bomb to center in the second inning. It was the furthest ball Garcia has hit in his career, the perfect confluence of bat speed and launch angle.

He also had the start in center field with India at third base. If he takes to the outfield and continues to lift the baseball…

The Royals had traffic on the bases pretty much all day long. So much so that they could’ve plated more than the 11 runs they finished with. Witt was hit by a pitch in the fifth, swiped two bags before a pair of walks loaded the bases. MJ Melendez popped out to end the inning.

And inning later, Canha was hit by a pitch to open the frame and moved to second on an India single. Again, the Royals couldn’t get a run across the plate.

Squandering those kinds of opportunities can be frustrating, but they broke the game open in the seventh when Perez launched his first home run of 2025 to push the lead to 5-0. The Royals then parlayed four singles and two walks into five more runs, eventually batting around. It seemed like the 2024 Royals would bat around somewhat frequently. Good to see that that brand of fun is still to be had.

Central Issues

Guardians 2, Padres 7

José Ramírez returned to the Cleveland lineup and contributed three hits, including a double and a home run, but the Guardians couldn’t get the jump on the red-hot San Diego Padres. Gavin Sheets went 3-3 with 4 RBIs for San Diego.

Tigers 7, Mariners 1

Think Detroit was happy to get the hell out of Los Angeles? They went off for six runs in the first. The Mariners chipped away at Tigers starter Jackson Jobe, dinging him for three runs over four, but the Detroit bullpen held steady enough to secure the win. Brant Hurter picked up a three inning save.

Twins 0, White Sox 9

I’m not sure what is going on, but I’m writing this with a smile. Andrew Vaughn clubbed a three-run home run in the first. Andrew Benintendi hit a three-run bomb in the second. And Michael A. Taylor added a two-run homer in the third. All three dingers came off Twins starter Chris Paddack. Meanwhile, Sox starter Martín Pérez went six no-hit innings. The Twins are 0-4.

Hey, it’s never too early for this:

At this rate, I expect the Twins to swap places with the White Sox by the end of their series in Chicago.