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Kansas City starting pitcher Seth Lugo inked a two-year, $46 million dollar contract for 2026-27.
Left-hander Connor Thomas is playing under a one-year, pre-arbitration contract with a base salary of $171,011.
The Royals teammates were both in on the action Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Lugo, who allowed nine hits and as many runs, didn’t make it out of the fourth.
During what turned out to be a three-run third, Lugo basically didn’t bother on a “hustle effort play” to first base which allowed Guardians leadoff man Steven Kwan to reach on an infield single and spark the big frame.
After a few innings of some Lugo batting practice, Thomas hit the bump facing a 9-1 deficit where there was no one out in the bottom of the fifth.
Travis Bazzana broke out of the box trying to reach first after a swinging bunt.
Thomas sprinted off the mound, scooped it up in stride via a backhand and then did a full body extension dive into first base to tag the bag and beat him by a step.
The Australian made a nice leap after hitting the base to avoid stepping on him.
It was an amazing play to view sitting across the diamond in Section 171 with the better half and my old college compadre from Salem-Teikyo.
I kept waiting and waiting, but they never showed a replay at the stadium.
Sadly, it didn’t even make the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 plays.
Although we had to deal with a little precipitation that pushed the game back half an hour, the crazy thing was less than a half mile after leaving the house we passed a turkey vulture devouring his morning feast of squirrel intestines.
That definitely got the day going, which overall turned out great.
The wife managed to snag one of the hats they were throwing out and stopping at Whitey’s in Richfield on the way back is always a winning combo.
It also turned out to be quite the day for Chase DeLauter, a two-time recipient of the John Lowery Award for being the Mountain State’s best prep baseball player while attending Hedgesville High School.
Not only did DeLauter make a sweet running leaping grab on a ball smoked to the warning track by Tyler Tolbert in the second, but he finished the afternoon with his third career four-hit game as a pro.
Of course, the wife was wondering why his walk-up music was “Country Roads” by John Denver so I had to give her some backstory.
At the end of the day I reckon the most amazing thing was watching Jose Ramirez actually hit a home run.
I knew he had been struggling this season, but when he left the yard for a two-run bomb to right in the fourth off Lugo it was his first round-tripper since June 6.
His 11th home run also turned out to be his first at Progressive Field since the Guardians faced Cincinnati back on May 17.
One never knows what a day at the ballpark will turn into.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com