After well-timed off-day, Jac Caglianone leads Royals to home win over Rangers

Jaylon Thompson, The Kansas City Star on Jun 9, 2026

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals held Jac Caglianone out of Sunday’s series finale at the Minnesota Twins due to right-shoulder soreness.

There wasn’t much concern about the slugging right fielder’s condition. Royals manager Matt Quatraro felt Caglianone was steadily improving and just decided to give Caglianone an extra day of rest ahead of Monday’s scheduled off-day.

Well, Caglianone certainly looked well-rested on Tuesday night: He belted two home runs as the Royals earned a 5-3 series- and homestand-opening victory over the Texas Rangers at Kauffman Stadium.

Caglianone bested Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi throughout the game. In the second inning, he worked a nine-pitch walk with two outs. Eovaldi offered him a healthy diet of cutters, splitters and curveballs during that sequence.

And each time, Caglianone was ready. He fouled off seven pitches during the at-bat before earning a free pass.

Eovaldi was able to avoid potential trouble. He held the Royals hitless through four innings, the dam finally breaking when Caglianone took him deep in the fifth.

Eovaldi left a curveball over the plate and Caglianone hammered his seventh homer into the right-field seats. The blast traveled 421 feet and helped KC cut its two-run deficit in half.

Caglianone has now hit safely in 14 of his last 21 games. And he wasn’t done with the Rangers’ pitching staff on Tuesday night.

In the sixth, Caglianone capped a four-run inning with his second homer of the night — this time off Rangers left-handed reliever Jalen Beeks.

Beeks was summoned for that left-on-left matchup. In his career, Caglianone has struggled against lefties, with a .195 batting average in 122 plate appearances.

Not this time.

Caglianone ambushed an 88.8-mph change-up and sent the baseball 431 feet into the Kauffman Stadium fountains.

The Royals registered five hits against Eovaldi and Beeks in the sixth. Carter Jensen started it with a leadoff double. Then, Bobby Witt Jr. moved him to third base before Maikel Garcia hit an RBI triple to tie the game at 2.

Vinnie Pasquantino gave the Royals the lead with an RBI double off the outfield wall — the 100th double of his career.

On this night, everything seemed to set up Caglianone. The 23-year-old now has his second two-homer game as a major leaguer. And in a nice coincidence, the first instance was also against the Rangers, on June 19, 2025 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

The Royals improved to 28-39. It was their sixth victory in eight games after concluding a 10-game road trip on Sunday in Minneapolis.

Royals starter Stephen Kolek received a no-decision. He allowed two runs on eight hits after returning from the family medical emergency list.

The Rangers scored their first run on Jake Burger’s RBI single. The Royals committed two defensive errors in the fourth inning, allowing Evan Carter to score the visitors’ second run.

Texas (33-33) added its third and final run in the seventh. Evan Carter recorded an RBI groundout after Joc Pederson reached with a one-out triple.

Royals right-hander Alex Lange pitched the ninth for his fourth save of the season.

What’s next?

Royals right-hander Seth Lugo (2-4, 3.91 ERA) will start on Wednesday night opposite Rangers lefty MacKenzie Gore (4-5, 4.23 ERA) with first pitch set for 6:40 p.m. Central Time at Kauffman Stadium.