Jac Caglianone gives struggling Royals reason to hope with 2 homers, 2 doubles in win over Cubs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — There have been precious few bright spots for the Kansas City Royals this season.

Injuries have decimated their starting rotation. Their bullpen has been among the worst in baseball. Even their biggest star, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., has struggled with injuries during a subpar statistical season by his own lofty standards.

Jac Caglianone has provided one of the reasons for the Royals to feel good.

The power-hitting first baseman crushed a pair of homers, added two doubles and finished four RBIs on another big night at the plate Saturday, leading his beleaguered club past the contending Chicago Cubs 6-3 t o even their series at a game apiece.

“Really impressive,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I mean, literally from left field to right, different pitch types as well. We know he's got huge power and we saw that throughout the night. It just seemed like he was really calm at the plate.”

No player in Royals history had ever had two homers and two doubles in the same game, and Caglianone also become the first player in the big leagues this season with such a stat line. He tied a career high with four hits, became the seventh player in franchise history with four extra-base hits in a game, and his 12 total bases were the most by a Royals player in a decade.

Oh, and it wasn't just a flash in the night. Caglianone has hit in seven straight games, the second-longest streak of his career.

“That was a good night,” he acknowledged, before deflecting some of his success onto assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames, who has been helping Caglianone to simplify things at the plate. “Tonight was a good night of that.”

The 22-year-old Caglianone raced through the minors before making his major league debut amid big expectations last season, only to go through some serious growing pains. He hit just .157 with seven homers and 18 RBIs over 62 games and 210 at-bats.

Yet things have clicked this season. And his prodigious power has come with it.

His first homer Saturday night, off the Cubs' Clay Holmes in the first inning, was a 448-foot shot to right-center with an exit velocity of 111.9 mph. His second long ball, off reliever Colin Rea, went 420 feet to center with an exit velocity of 111.0 exactly.

Caglianone has now hit 20 homers this season, and their average distance of 418.2 feet is the best of anybody in the majors.

“It's almost like you're waiting for that to happen every night,” Witt said.

The Royals can only hope it becomes a nightly occurrence.

They made only a couple of minor moves at the trade deadline, rather than clean house, believing that they can bounce back behind the same nucleus next season, providing everybody stays healthy and the bullpen improves. Witt and Caglianone are part of that core, along with young catcher Carter Jensen, all of whom played a part in helping to beat the Cubs on Saturday night.

Caglianone played the biggest, of course, with four extra-base hits that ultimately made the difference.

“I think the beauty of it is that tomorrow will come and today won't matter anymore. So you know, like, relish it, remember what you did well, but you know, tomorrow's a new day,” Caglianone said. “Just kind of stay the course.”

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