By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Kris Bubic nearly pitched himself into the franchise record books before settling for another dazzling outing while leading Kansas City to a 3-1 win over the Giants on Monday.
Bubic took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, shook off a questionable ruling that broke up the bid then calmed back down to put the finishing touches on his fifth victory of the season, his most since he went 6-7 in 2021.
The Royals though, as has been the case much of the season, were unable to support Bubic offensively for most of the game. That is until the eighth inning when Jonathan India doubled, and Vinnie Pasquantino blasted his team leading eighth home run to center field, scoring Cavan Biggio who pinch ran for India, and putting Kansas City up 2-0.
Fire us up, Pasquatch! pic.twitter.com/gHiMZGcuo6
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) May 20, 2025
Before Pasquantino’s homer, a controversial ruling decision by the official scorer had the Oracle Park crowd buzzing.
Bubic faced two over the minimum through five innings, both runners reaching base by walk. With two outs in the sixth, Giants slugger Wilmer Flores rolled a grounder toward second base. Royals second baseman Michael Massey appeared to slip as he was trying to make a play and the ball deflected off his glove and rolled into the outfield for an error.
Official scorekeeper Michael Duca later reversed the call to a hit, ending Bubic’s bid to throw the fifth no-hitter in franchise history. Bret Saberhagen was the most recent Royals pitcher to do it, on Aug. 26, 1991.
Error changed to hit in the bottom of the sixth inning for Kris Bubic in San Francisco. https://t.co/r7gtc9rALh pic.twitter.com/nLqFIAYM4f
— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) May 20, 2025
San Francisco’s Casey Schmitt doubled off Bubic in the seventh, making the call moot.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Giants did cut the lead to one, Jung Ho Lee doubling home Sam Huff, but in the ninth the Royals added an insurance run on a Kyle Isbel single driving in Maikel Garcia who singled to open up the inning. Carlos Estévez came on in the bottom of the ninth, giving up a single to LaMonte Wade Jr., but closing out the game for his 14th save.
With the win Bubic improved to 5-2 throwing seven shutout innings, striking out five and walking three while giving up two hits, lowering his season ERA to 1.47, the fourth best in the MLB. His ERA in the month of May is 0.36. Pasquantino (2-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI), Garcia (2-4, 1 run), Mark Canha (2-3), and Isbel (2-4, 1 RBI) led the way hitting on the day.
Kansas City and San Fransisco continue their series tomorrow. Michael Lorenzen (3-4, 3.76 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals against Hayden Birdsong (1-0, 2.31 ERA) for the Giants. First pitch is at 8:45pm with pregame coverage beginning at 8 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
