Kansas City Royals starter Michael Wacha turned in a vintage performance on Saturday afternoon.
And he did something even Royals manager Matt Quatraro hadn’t seen before.
Wacha began the game with 17 consecutive strikes. He pounded the strike zone with primarily his four-seam fastball, changeup and sinker. The White Sox chased throughout the game: Wacha recorded 44 swings and 15 whiffs, per Statcast.
“I was not aware that it was that many,” Quatraro said. “I knew he as in the (strike) zone a lot. So I don’t know if I had seen that before or not. But it’s highly unlikely.”
With Wacha’s performance and the help of Maikel Garcia on offense, the Royals earned a 2-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday.
Garcia scored twice, the first time on his leadoff home run in the first inning and then, after his double, on Vinnie Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly in the eighth.
It was the club’s second shutout in as many days.
“We played well enough as a team to win two days in a row,” Quatraro said. “We know, you’re not going to sustain long winning streaks scoring two runs. But some days, you are going to win 9-8 and that’s fine, too. And we need to do all those things.”
The White Sox (5-10) ran into more good pitching as Wacha turned in another dominant performance. He recorded eight scoreless innings, matching Kris Bubic’s shoutout start on Friday night.
“You got to make pitches against them,” Wacha said. “And you know, watching (Bubic’s) start and watching (Seth) Lugo’s start, you know, they executed. They made pitches to where they wanted it to be.”
Chicago finished with four hits in the game (as did the Royals). Meanwhile, Garcia changed the game with one swing.
In the first inning, Garcia belted a solo homer over the left-field wall. He got a 93.9 mph sinker down the middle of the plate.
“I was trying to do damage in my first at-bat, and that’s what I did today,” Garcia said.
The baseball left his bat in mere seconds. As Garcia trotted around the bases, the Royals celebrated him from the home dugout. It was his third career leadoff homer and first since March 28, 2024, against the Minnesota Twins.
And Wacha made sure to keep the White Sox off the scoreboard.
White Sox sluggers Andrew Benintendi and Lenyn Sosa each recorded doubles. However, Wacha avoided further trouble and kept his pitch count low, which allowed him to march through eight innings of shutout baseball.
“I knew, kind of going into it, the stuff was moving good,” Wacha said. “You know, I had some good command. Had a good game plan going into hit, me and Sal (Salvador Perez). And you know, he was pressing the right buttons.”
As a result, Wacha entered the eighth inning at 80 pitches.
He retired Tanner Murray, Reese McGuire and Chase Meidroth in order to preserve a one-run lead. Wacha struck out Meidroth and received a loud ovation from the 16,214 fans in attendance when he walked off the field.
Since joining the Royals, Wacha has posted a quality start in seven games against the White Sox. He now leads the majors with a 0.43 ERA this season.
“The efficiency is what was impressive about it,” Quatraro said. “I mean, he was in control the whole time. He had the curveball and changeup, obviously, and he was getting the fastball to the spots he wanted. He was ahead of everybody. So that was a master class right there.”
Royals closer Lucas Erceg took over in the ninth. He picked up his fifth save as the club secured at least a split in the four-game series.
“We have to get another one tomorrow,” Garcia said. “We don’t want to get two and two (a series split).”
What’s next: Royals left-hander Noah Cameron will start Sunday’s series finale at Kauffman Stadium. Chicago will use right-hander Grant Taylor as an opener. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. Central Time.
This story was originally published April 11, 2026 at 5:50 PM.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
