Vinnie

Pasquantino

The 27-year-old slugger opened the scoring in the ballgame with a 412-foot (103.7 mph EV) solo shot off of Erick Fedde in the home half of the first inning. The 27-year-old slugger then added an RBI double in the sixth inning that extended the Royals’ edge to 9-3. He has done a decent job overall on the season, slashing .268/.329/.446 with 18 homers and 65 RBI over his first 450 plate appearances.

Salvador Perez and Tyler Tolbert also left the yard at Wrigley today. It’s Pasquantino’s third career two-homer game. Like his previous two, this one came on the road. Just five of his 17 homers this season have come in Kansas City. He’s typically hit for a higher average at home, but that hasn’t been the case this season.

It’s an extremely rare off day for Pasquantino, who has appeared in 100 of 101 games this season for Kansas City. It’ll be Salvador Perez handling the cold corner at Wrigley Field in this one following a two-home explosion during Monday’s series opener.

Pasquantino helps the Royals win back-to-back games for the first time since June 19-20. The first baseman hit both of his homers off a wholly ineffective Eduardo Rodriguez; a three-run shot in the first followed by a two-run roundtripper in the fourth. Pasquantino has now homered 14 times in the first-half of 2024 wit an OPS of .774. Far from elite numbers, but solid all things considered.

Pasquantino’s home run was No. 12 on the season. He hit a three-run shot off Ben Casparius in the fifth inning. Pasquantino also had a two-run double in the seventh inning. He’s hitting .273 with a .755 OPS and 47 RBI on the year after a slow start to the season with poor production in the month of April.

Pasquantino’s hot stretch continued with his ninth home run of the season when he went back-to-back with Maikel García in the third inning. The Royals’ offense did literally nothing besides that, but all three Pasquantino’s balls in play were hit at least 99 mph. Ironically, his homer was the softest hit of the trio. Alas, he has a .361 batting average and .898 OPS over his last 30 games to flush away what was a rough April.

It’s Pasquantino’s second career four-hit game. He’s batting .369 in his last 28 games, raising his average from .181 to .269.

Pasquantino’s three hits today checked in at 105.4, 107.2 and 108.7 mph. He had totaled 16 balls in play over 105 mph this season in 51 games this season, so three in one day is really nice. Pasquantino is hitting .323 with five homers over his last 23 games.

Pasquantino has worked hard to put a miserable start of the season behind him. He’s now hit safely in seven straight games and 17 of 21 games in May. During that span, he’s gone from a horrific .569 OPS to a much more palatable .667 OPS. Hopefully he can keep his hot hitting going into June as well.

In a scoreless game, Pasquantino took Tyler Rogers deep for a two-run shot in the eighth for his eighth homer of the season. He also singled, and he came into Monday’s game with a slash of .292/.311/.404 slash. Pasquantino’s OPS is still a disappointing .664, but it’s nice to see the 27-year-old on the upswing.