The Royals beat the Chicago Cubs 6-3 on Saturday night, and Jac Caglianone was the reason the game tilted early and stayed there. He hit two homers, doubled twice and drove in four runs, while Clay Holmes needed 70 pitches to get through four innings in his Cubs debut.
That is why people were searching Cubs Vs Royals after the game ended. Chicago had traded for Holmes earlier this week because it needed another arm for its rotation, and Saturday was his first start since returning from the injured list. Instead, the first night of that bet turned into a showcase for Kansas City’s young bat and a rough landing for the pitcher the Cubs were counting on.
Caglianone opened the scoring with a first-inning homer estimated at 448 feet, then kept punishing Chicago in the third with a double that brought home Bobby Witt Jr. He was not finished. His second homer came in the bottom of the seventh, after the Cubs had briefly pulled within a run. By then, the Royals had already built enough cushion behind Seth Lugo, who allowed three runs on five hits and a walk over six innings while striking out five.
Holmes, meanwhile, never found a clean rhythm. He gave up six hits and two walks, struck out one batter and was charged with four runs. The line mattered because the Cubs did not trade for him just to make one start; they brought him in to stabilize the rotation, and that only works if he can get through innings without constantly working from behind. On Saturday, he was laboring from the start.
The Cubs did have moments. Carson Kelly hit a two-out double in the fourth, and Ian Happ answered with a two-out homer in the sixth to pull Chicago within 4-3. But John Schreiber struck out Seiya Suzuki with two aboard in the seventh, and Caglianone’s second homer in the bottom half shut the door. Josh Rojas also added a pair of RBIs for the Royals, and Nate Pearson earned his second save of the season to finish the job.
The series now turns to Sunday, when Matthew Boyd is scheduled to start for the Cubs and Randy Dobnak is scheduled to start for Kansas City. For Chicago, the question is not whether Holmes can help over time. It is how quickly he can turn a debut like this into the kind of start the Cubs traded for earlier this week.
