The Royals flatten the Rockies

Is the offense fixed? It sure feels like it. All it took was a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies.

Thirteen runs. That was the Royals’ tally between the two games against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday.

They had scored a total of 13 runs in their previous five games. They also scored a total of 13 runs in the five games before that. So yes, the offense did come alive. In addition to the runs, there were 24 hits in total.

The Royals took the first game by a 7-4 score. It was just the third time in 25 games this year they topped four runs in a game. Then, they did it again in the second game, plating six in a convincing 6-2 win to complete the sweep of the doubleheader and the series.

Yes, it was against the Colorado Rockies. I knew they were a bad team, but I did not realize they were that bad. We’re talking Chicago White Sox bad. This is a team dripping with ineptitude in just about every facet of the game. They’ve won four games this year, now against 19 losses. Reader, I’m trying to figure out how they won those four games.

It’s fantastic the Royals were able to get right against the Rockies. They needed these wins. They caught a team that is playing bad baseball and came out on top. Given how this offense has looked the first month or so of the season, this was an exceptional series.

The offensive star of these games was undoubtedly Salvador Perez. I wrote about him last week in the midst of this offensive malaise that while there were plenty of guys who weren’t hitting their weight (literally!), I was not worried that Perez was among them. His expected batting statistics were robust. He, among his teammates, was hitting into some outrageously poor luck. That had to change at some point.

Turns out that point was on Tuesday. Perez completed the quadruple-double. Rather, a quadruple of doubles. Or something like that.

Perez clubbed two doubles in the first game of the doubleheader. His first two-bagger came in the first and brought home Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. His second came leading off the third inning. He scored on a Michael Massey single. For the capper, he walked leading off the sixth and eventually scored on a Kyle Isbel infield single. That actually doesn’t do Isbel’s hit justice as he smoked it down the line at 102 mph off the bat that the first baseman could only block with his glove. Isbel, incidentally, collected three RBIs in the first game.

The good vibes from game one were tempered by the fact that starter Cole Ragans went only three innings and was far from sharp. He allowed three hits—two of which left the yard—and four runs. He also walked two batters, threw a ton of pitches well off the plate and his velocity on his four-seamer was down a tick.

After the game the Royals announced he was dealing with a tight left groin.

I thought the warning signs were there from the very first batter Ragans faced. He seemed to be yanking his four-seamer and missed with his slider by a large margin.

Ragans did record a strikeout on a nifty knuckle curve to close out the inning, but needed 22 pitches to get those first three outs. The entire day was just a grind for the lefty as he needed 62 pitches to navigate those three innings. This was how his entire outing looked, which was very un-Ragans like:

After the game, manager Matt Quatraro said that Ragans had a difficult time getting loose in the bullpen prior to making his start. Perez, his catcher for the game, also said to Anne Rogers that Ragans was struggling from the very beginning.

Ragans will be evaluated and will undergo further testing on Friday.

The Royals had the tremendous fortune of keeping their starting rotation mostly injury-free in 2024. Losing Ragans for any amount of time in 2025, especially after this slow start to open the year, would hurt this ballclub.

The good news was the Royals bats were more than up to the task. I don’t think I’ve written that at any point in this young season.

The Rockies took the lead in the first after that leadoff walk and the Royals came back with the pair on Perez’s double in the bottom of the inning. The Rockies tied the game in the second and took the lead in the third off of a two-run home run. The Royals were unperturbed and backed Perez’s second double of the game with three consecutive one-out singles to tie the game. They took the lead in the fifth after the Perez walk and Isbel single.

The above win probability doesn’t really capture the early inning swings, but the game felt very much in the balance through the first half. Yes, these were the Rockies, but with the Kansas City offense, nothing is guaranteed. It’s a credit to the offense that they were able to string together some competitive at bats to get the runs home. This was not something we’ve seen from this team in 2025.

A tremendous amount of credit has to go to the bullpen in game one. After Ragans exited, Angel Zerpa, Steven Cruz, Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estévez combined for six shutout innings where they allowed just two baserunners. That’s a shutdown effort.

The second game was much more comfortable, with the Royals plating single runs in the second and third innings before exploding (yes, this offense exploded!) for three in the fifth. That was the first time since April 6 in the first inning that the Royals scored more than two runs in an inning. That’s some kind of offensive drought. But you know all about that, because you’ve watched this team attempt to score runs the last couple of weeks.

The thing about that three-run fifth was that everything good that happened, happened with two outs. It also wasn’t a coincidence that the lineup rolled back to the top. Jonathan India hit a double and scored on a Witt single. Pasquantino walked and that man Perez, laced another double to score both. Four batters at the top of the lineup, three runs scored. That’s more like it.

Second game starter Michael Lorenzen was sharp. He went six innings, striking out seven with a fastball that could best be described as lively. Lorenzed just looked in command for his entire outing, even though he walked four and gave up five hits.

The only damage done was from Jordan Beck, who hit a pair of solo home runs. One off Lorenzen in the sixth and another off Daniel Lynch IV in the eighth. Even with all those early baserunners, that was all the Rockies offense could manage.

The Win Probability chart from the second game was much less dramatic. An easy win, which the Royals definitely needed. A sweep of the doubleheader. A sweep of the series. They’ve won four in a row.

That’s taking care of business.