Eight winners and zero losers as the Royals defeat the Orioles 4-0

The Royals have shutout opponents in four of their last eight contests

The Royals have done it, they have secured their first winning road trip of the season, completing their fourth win out of a total of six planned contests, and fourth out of five completed contests. If you didn’t see the subhead above, the Royals have now shutout their opponents in half of their last eight matchups. It’s hard to lose when you don’t let the other team score any runs, even if your offense isn’t very good.

Winners

Maikel Garcia was perhaps the star of the game in this one. He got the scoring started in the fourth inning. Jonathan India had led off with a double, but Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino couldn’t advance him, much less score him. Up came Garcia. With two strikes he reached out and blooped a curveball out of the strikezone into center to give the Royals all the runs they’d need. He’d finish the night three-for-three with three singles and a walk.

Kris Bubic pitched five shutout innings, which lowered his ERA back below two to 1.98. He didn’t strike out many in this one, only three, but he only allowed five baserunners. No one ever made it past second against him, no one made it past first after the first inning. He only threw 72 pitches in those five innings, but he also had to endure a nearly one-hour rain delay between the first and second innings, so the Royals decided to go to the bullpen early. When you’ve got one of the best bullpens in the league, that just makes sense.

Cavan Biggio started as the designated hitter with Salvy still nursing his hip injury. He drove in and scored the Royals’ second run with one out in the fifth inning.

If you had Cavan Biggio hitting a home run before Hunter Renfroe, Michael Massey, Mark Canha, or Jonathan India, much less all four of them, you see into the future better than I.

Kyle Isbel added on against Seranthony Dominguez in the eighth.

Vinnie Pasquantino didn’t want to be left out, and helped the Royals achieve their magic run number, even though the first one ended up being all they needed.

Daniel Lynch IV was the first man out of the bullpen and he pitched two scoreless innings while things were still quite tight.

“Lights Out” Lucas Erceg had already warmed up before Isbel and Vinnie started hitting dingers, so he got the eighth and struck out two while maintaining the shutout.

John Schreiber took the ninth in a non-save situation and struck out one in a perfect inning to send the Royals to their clubhouse as happy guys.

Honorable mention

Jonathan India had the double and scored the first run as noted above, and also walked. That marks the fifth time in six games he’s reached base, and he’s been on multiple times in four of those. He’s been approaching a league-average hitter over that span, raising his wRC+ nine points. He might yet prove to be pretty useful!

It was somewhat annoying to have a rain delay interrupt the game after only the first inning, but thankfully, it was short enough that both starters were able to return, even if neither was then able to pitch deep into the game. The Orioles were projected to have the second-best bullpen in baseball, according to a FanGraphs preseason power ranking, so it was nice to see the Royals' bullpen outdo them in every way.

The Royals will go for the series victory tomorrow at 12:35 CDT. Michael Lorenzen of the Royals will face off against Kyle Gibson of the Orioles. In Gibson’s first outing of the year, he gave up five home runs in fewer than four innings to the Yankees. Here’s hoping the power the Royals found tonight - it was the first time they’d hit three home runs in a game all year - can keep surging tomorrow. The game will be aired on both FDSN and MLB Network.