ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jac Caglianone got his first night off as a major leaguer with the Kansas City Royals in part because of a left-handed starter for the Texas Rangers.
A day later, the for the powerful 22-year-old prospect came in lefty-lefty matchups against relievers.
Caglianone went deep leading off the second and ninth innings of a on Thursday as the Royals completed their first three-game sweep at Texas since five months after Caglianone was born in 2003.
“I don’t know how smart I was sitting him against a lefty,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He hit two homers on a lefty today.”
The first was against Jacob Latz, when Caglianone swung at a 95.5 mph fastball above the strike zone and pulled it 387 feet into the Texas bullpen in right-center field for a 3-0 Kansas City lead.
“I didn’t realize until I saw on video how far up I got him,” said Caglianone, whose 6-foot-5 frame makes high fastballs look even higher.
He pointed toward center field as he rounded second base — a gesture he repeated in the ninth — then had to wait out the silent treatment in the dugout.
“It felt like forever,” Caglianone said. “I picked up on it after I gave the coaches there high-fives, and nobody’s really moving, so I’m like, ‘All right, it’s going to happen.’ Didn’t really know when.”
The second was Robert Garcia’s first pitch in the ninth — a slider — and this time a 439-foot drive went over that same bullpen. The doubt Caglianone had about whether the first one was deep enough was erased right away on the second drive.
Caglianone, the sixth overall pick in last year’s amateur draft out of Florida, hit 15 homers in 50 games combined with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha before getting called up June 3.
“The first pitch was up at his eyes. He got on top of it. That’s the strength,” Quatraro said. “The second looked like a get-me-over breaking ball, and he was ready to hit. Good for him in both cases. Good for us in that’s what we hope we see from him.”
The homers came 13 days after Caglianone made his debut with an . He was hitting .194 after going hitless in the series opener against Texas. He sat against lefty starter Patrick Corbin on Wednesday night.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to swing, and I lied,” Caglianone said about his say off. “I got here early, hit a little bit with (hitting coach Alec Zumwalt), and then once the game comes around, it was different. I’m not used to doing that. I’m thankful for that mental reset.”
His first big league hit was a double, and he had another in a 4-for-4 game against the Chicago White Sox. But Caglianone knew what everybody was waiting to see.
“It was something I tried not to think about, but as the days kept climbing, I was conscious of it more and more,” said Caglianone, who played his first six games on the road before . “Got a nice bit of relief right there.”
The same could be said for the neighbor to his right in the visiting clubhouse — Vinnie Pasquantino, whose team-leading 11th homer was a two-run shot that opened the scoring against Shawn Armstrong, the starter in a bullpen game for Texas.
“I saw some good swings from him and know he’s been grinding for some results a little bit,” said Pasquantino, a 27-year-old in his fourth season. “Good to see. Hopefully he can build off it.”
And maybe his manager won’t spend much time thinking about the lefty-lefty thing.
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