Dead last in MLB in scoring? Not on Saturday, as Kansas City hung nine runs to snap LA’s 5-game winning streak
A sloppy game on defense and a rare bad outing by Ben Casparius put a halt to the Dodgers’ five-game win streak on Saturday. The Royals had no trouble scoring in a 9-5 rout of Los Angeles in the middle game of a weekend series at Kauffman Stadium.
For a third consecutive appearance, Casparius followed Shohei Ohtani on the mound, which on Saturday began his day in the third inning of a scoreless game. As Casparius entered the game, David Vassegh on the SportsNet LA broadcast reported that Casparius was under the weather and sent back to the team hotel on Friday night. But he was deemed well enough to pitch Saturday, then gave up a pair of two-out hits in the third inning, including a fly ball by Bobby Witt Jr. that dropped in front of Teoscar Hernández, the third such ball that dropped in short right field during this series.
A cement mixer by Casparius with two strikes was tattooed off the left field wall by Maikel Garcia for the game’s first two runs.
Maikel for ✌️. pic.twitter.com/riumYrICP9
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) June 28, 2025
Three more singles in the fourth inning, the first of which was booted by Andy Pages in center field for an extra base, brought home another run. Another middle-middle pitch by Casparius was hammered by Vinny Pasquantino for a three-run home run that put the Royals up 6-0.
After the floodgates open, the Royals added three more against Luis Garcia in the seventh.
Kansas City scored four total runs in their previous five games heading into this weekend, and entered Saturday dead last in MLB in scoring.
On offense the Dodgers faced an uphill battle facing Seth Lugo, who retired his first two batters in four of the first five innings. The Dodgers put runners on in all of those innings, plus the sixth, totaling five walks and four singles. But they couldn’t cash anything in against Lugo. Dalton Rushing struck out three times to end innings with folks on base, but he wasn’t alone. Lugo struck out eight in his outing and Royals pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts on the day.
Mr. 4,000
The longest power drought of Freddie Freeman’s career is finally over. His solo shot in the seventh inning was his first home run since May 11, snapping a string of 179 plate appearances and over 41 games without a long ball.
It was Freeman’s first extra-base hit since a double on June 9, going 71 plate appearances and over 15 games in between extra-base hits. Freeman also singled twice and walked before the home run, which brought him to 4,003 career total bases, the 91st player in major league history with 4,000 total bases.
Freeman added a walk in the ninth, his first game reaching base five times this season.
Two-way day
Ohtani’s third time on the mound was his longest outing to date, stretching to two innings. He issued his first walk — Maikel Garcia with one out in the first inning — but otherwise peppered the zone more often than his previous two starts, with 20 of 27 pitches for strikes.
Witt singled in the first inning ahead of the walk, but Ohtani induced a double-play grounder by Pasquantino to end the first inning. The final pitch to Pasquantino registered at 101.7 mph, the fastest pitch Ohtani’s ever thrown in the majors, surpassing his previous high, a 101.4 mph fastball on September 4, 2022 against Houston.
Ohtani also struck out Jac Caglianone in the second inning, part of a spotless frame that finished off his two scoreless innings.
Saturday was Ohtani’s first pitching start on the road with the Dodgers, but he still did bat to leadoff an inning directly after he pitched. This time it came to open the third inning after pitching a scoreless second. Ohtani struck out against Seth Lugo this time, as he did in the bottom of the first inning in each of his first two pitching starts at home. If you want to count Ohtani leading off the top of the first inning Saturday after warming up in the bullpen, he struck out then as well.
But after those early strikeouts in his first two pitching starts, Ohtani had two multi-hit games, totaling a home run, triple, double, single, two walks, and seven RBI. He wasn’t able to replicate that on Saturday in Kansas City, going hitless in four at-bats with three strikeouts to snap a five-game hit streak.
Saturday particulars
Home runs: Freddie Freeman (10); Vinnie Pasquantino (12)
WP — Seth Lugo (5-5): 5⅔ IP, 4 hits, 5 walks, 8 strikeouts
LP — Ben Casparius (6-2): 4 IP, 8 hits, 6 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers conclude the road trip on Sunday with a pre-noon start time back in Los Angeles (11:10 a.m. PT, SportsNet LA). Justin Wrobleski will probably follow an opener in the series finale, though exact plans haven’t yet been revealed. Left-hander Kris Bubic starts for Kansas City.