Two weeks into his major-league career, Jac Caglianone has his first home run with the Kansas City Royals. Actually, make that two home runs.
Caglianone, the Royals' top prospect before he was called up June 3, took Texas Rangers reliever Jacob Latz deep in the second inning to give Kansas City a 2-0 lead in an eventual 4-1 win. He hit a 95.5 mph fastball high but down the middle, launching it into the home team's bullpen in right-center field at Globe Life Field. Getting the milestone baseball back likely wasn't a problem.
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The right fielder wore a big grin on his way around the bases and back to the dugout. As he got to the bench, his Royals teammates initially gave him the rookie treatment of freezing him out of a celebration.
Caglianone was undeterred, giving himself a high-five line with no one nearby before Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. finally acknowledged the feat, spurring the rest of the team to join in.
How high was that fastball Caglianone hit out of the park? The pitch was 4.22 feet off the ground, according to MLB.com's Sarah Langs. That's the highest pitch a player has hit for his first career home run since Statcast began measuring balls in play in 2015.
The home run ball also came off the second-highest pitch that a player has hit over the fence this season, Langs reported. Latz's fastball was also the highest pitch that a Royals batter hit for a home run since pitch tracking began in 2008.
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In the ninth inning, Caglianone added the second home run of his MLB career, crushing the first pitch from Robert Garcia, an 86 mph slider low and inside, over the right-field bullpen into the seats.
In his first 13 MLB games, Caglianone started slowly with a slash line of .196/.212/.235 with two doubles and two RBI in 52 plate appearances. He got his first career MLB hit in his second game, with an RBI double. With the 2-for-4 performance Thursday in the Royals' win over the Rangers, Caglianone boosted his numbers to .218/.232/.364 on the season.
Prior to his call-up, Caglianone batted .322/.389/.593 with 15 home runs and 56 RBI between Double-A and Triple-A this year. He was the Royals' first-round pick (No. 6 overall) in the 2024 MLB Draft.
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Also Thursday, Royals starter Michael Wacha took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Wyatt Langford broke it up with a one-out single. Wacha (4-6, 3.24 ERA) pitched six innings, allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Three Kansas City relievers followed with three scoreless innings, giving up only one hit. Carlos Estévez (1.93 ERA) notched his 21st save of the season.
The Royals are 37-38 after Thursday's victory. That has them fourth in the American League Central, 11 games behind the Detroit Tigers. Their struggles are at least partially attributable to the team's offense, which ranks second-to-last in MLB with 52 home runs and a fourth-worst .671 OPS.
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