Royals LHP Kris Bubic feels his edge returning. That led to a dominant Sunday outing

By any number of, well, numbers, Kris Bubic threw one of the best outings of his career on Sunday.

He posted nine strikeouts, tied for the top mark of his career. He allowed only two hits; he hadn’t done that while going at least six innings since Sept. 2021. It was just the fourth time in his career he went at least six shutout innings.

There were any number of reasons for that success, and we’ll get to many of them, but among the biggest is something that only Bubic is able to truly quantify.

“I think mentally, being more confident, I think it’s as simple as that,” Bubic said after the Royals’ 3-1 loss to the Giants. “I didn’t have a ton of innings in the spring, but I saw that stuff is moving differently. Hitters are reacting differently. And I think just kind of maintaining that approach here throughout the first two starts, I feel like I kind of have the edge back that I’ve had previously, like coming up through the minor leagues.”

That’s good news for the Royals, especially after a shaky 2022 for Bubic, who went 3-13 with a career-worst 5.58 ERA.

Among the changes for Bubic this year has been the addition of a slider to his repertoire, which he’s already learning to manipulate. Against right-handed hitters, he noted, he kept the velocity up and the slider tight, while he challenged lefties by taking a little velocity off to allow for more movement.

Bubic called it encouraging to see how his changeup and slider were playing and noted he was able to get a high number of whiffs — 18 on 41 swings, per MLB.com — with those pitches.

“Just mixing everything, getting everything established early with the fastball and the changeup,” Bubic said. “Mixing in the two breaking balls, I got pretty creative with the shapes, too.”

The big development this season has been the slider, which Bubic acknowledges he’s “still kind of learning the feel of.”

“It kind of depends on what I’m comfortable with that day,” Bubic said. “Obviously the early returns on it are solid and I just want to keep it going.”

That’s a bit of an understatement.

In the finale at Oracle Park, in front of a crowd of 30,207, Bubic cruised through six innings on 76 pitches. Having thrown 88 pitches in his first start (and well beyond that in previous outings), he could have stayed in for the seventh, but interim manager Paul Hoover said the plan was for Bubic to get through six and then to go to the bullpen.

Specifically, Sunday’s game called for Carlos Hernandez, who left after an apparent injury that Hoover after the game called a cramp, followed by Ryan Yarbrough and closer Scott Barlow.

“(Bubic) was incredible. He gave us what we were hoping for, and that was six innings,” Hoover said. “He was great. Couldn’t ask for anything more.”

About Bubic’s day ending with just 76 pitches, Hoover added, “He did his job. He gave us a chance. We wanted to turn it over to our bullpen in that situation. We knew they had their lefties on the bench. We knew they were going to hit and we liked the matchup with Yarbs and Barlow after Hernandez.”

Bubic also noted he was OK with the move given it was early in the season and he hadn’t even made it into the sixth inning in his previous outing.

Of course, it never got to Barlow as the Giants plated three runs in the eighth inning. Several Royals noted the disappointment of losing given Bubic’s start, but the left-hander still earned plenty of praise around the clubhouse.

“Did great, honestly. Was really attacking guys, really staying ahead, keeping guys off-balance,” Yarbrough said. “You saw how everything played up that way when they can’t start sitting on certain pitches. Kind of put guys in a blender. He looked fantastic today.”

That aspect — “really attacking guys, really staying ahead” — is another new emphasis for the Royals and has seemed to pay dividends early.

The Royals have asked pitchers to attack the plate more often, especially early in counts. The strategy can vary depending on the count or batter, but for the most part ...

“It’s a lot of plate early on,” Bubic said. “There’s just too much incentive early to be ahead in the count as opposed to, ‘Hey, don’t throw it down the middle. You’re going to give up the hit.’ Because a lot of times you’re not hitting your spot anyway.”

Bubic, though, couldn’t have been more pinpoint Sunday. He routinely painted the edge of the zone and kept hitters off balance. And it gave him something to build on.

“Sucks we couldn’t sweep the series,” Bubic said, “but it was a good series regardless.”