The Kansas City Royals dropped their series opener against the New York Yankees on Monday night, falling 4-1 in the Bronx in the teams’ first meeting since the 2024 ALDS. While the result stung, Royals starter Seth Lugo delivered one of the most unique performances of the season—albeit one that also landed him in a bizarre statistical category.
Lugo, known for having one of the deepest arsenals in baseball, took full advantage of it. By the fifth inning, he had already thrown nine different pitch types. By the time his night ended at 6.2 innings and 98 pitches, he had unleashed 10 different pitches, ranging in velocity from 73.6 to 92.2 mph. According to FanGraphs, his mix included four-seamers, sinkers, curveballs, cutters, sliders, changeups, slow curves, slurves, splitters, and even a sweeper.
He threw 66 percent of his pitches for strikes, struck out four Yankees, walked two, and somehow still gave up four runs—all of them via solo home runs.
With long balls from Jazz Chisholm Jr., Austin Wells, Trent Grisham, and Ben Rice, Lugo became just the fifth Royals pitcher ever to give up four runs on four solo home runs in a game, and the first since Chris Young in 2016—also against the Yankees. Lugo joins Zack Greinke, Jeff Suppan, and Jim Pittsley on that quirky list.
Yankees hitters came in with a clear approach. Chisholm said postgame, “We all know that he’s very aggressive in the zone; he doesn’t like to walk people… We went up there with a plan of attack—get your pitch early and attack it.”
Despite the loss, Lugo’s outing showed why he’s such a fascinating pitcher to watch. His command, creativity, and willingness to throw anything at any time give him a shot to keep opposing lineups off balance—though that didn’t quite happen Monday.
The Royals will now turn their attention to Game 2 on Tuesday night, where they’ll face off against Yankees ace Max Fried and try to bounce back after being homer-happy victims in the Bronx.
