It just wasn’t like him.
Royals starting pitcher Jakob Junis had never been one to allow home runs at a clip so frequent the ball flew out of ballparks at a rate of 2.9 per nine innings.
Yet that was the version of Junis the Royals saw from May 28 to July 2, a span in which Junis lost all seven of his starts as he allowed 13 homers and 34 earned runs in 40 1/3 innings. He bottomed out on July 2 against the Indians at Kauffman Stadium, nine runs (eight earned) crossing the plate as Francisco Lindor clubbed both a grand slam and a three-run homer to account for most of the damage.