Royals fans likely had mixed emotions Tuesday watching Italy’s stunning 8-6 upset of Team USA at the World Baseball Classic.
There were current and former Royals all over the field in Houston. Bobby Witt Jr. had two hits for Team USA, while Jac Caglianone crushed a home run for Italy and celebrated with Vinnie Pasquantino.
Former Royals general manager Allard Baird is Italy’s first base coach, while ex-KC pitchers Ryan Yarbrough, Brad Keller and Gabe Speier pitched for Team USA. And former Royals starter Michael Lorenzen was the winning pitcher for Italy.
Caglianone said after the game that Team Italy as a close-knit group.
“Despite having the major league players that we have on this team and the high prospects and all that type of stuff, nobody on this team comes in with an ego, expecting to be treated differently because who they are, what they’ve done throughout their career,” Caglianone told ESPN. “And I think that’s something that a lot of these guys are going to take pride in. You kind of put whatever you did aside, and we’re all fighting for one common goal, and that’s to win and to keep going as long as we can and wear this uniform.”
Caglianone hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning and it was a no-doubter. The exit velocity was 110.4 mph and the ball traveled 403 feet.
The only Statcast information missing was how far Caglianone’s bat traveled. That’s because Caglianone followed his blast with an epic bat flip. Fox Sports analyst John Smoltz, the Hall of Famer, said he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a bat travel that far.
This was a colossal flip.
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 9:06 AM.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
