Velázquez goes to all fields with 3 HRs in 3 days

KANSAS CITY -- On Monday afternoon, Nelson Velázquez hit a ball a Statcast-projected 419 feet to left field for a pull-side home run.

On Tuesday night, Velázquez went the opposite way, launching a ball 392 feet to right.

On Wednesday night, Velázquez hit a ball 439 feet to straightaway center field for his third homer in as many days.

“He’s got huge power,” manager Matt Quatraro said Wednesday after the Royals’ 6-4 loss to the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium. “It’s all fields. We’ve seen it. This is a big ballpark, one of the biggest in the league. He’s hit balls to all fields here already.”

Velázquez has 26 hits in 36 big league games this season between the Cubs and Royals. Nearly half of them (12) have been home runs -- 46.2 percent -- and 17 have been for extra bases (65.4 percent).

Since the Royals acquired Velázquez from the Cubs for reliever Jose Cuas on July 31, the 24-year-old outfielder has hit nine homers in 23 games. Eight of those have come at Kauffman Stadium. He became the first Royal to homer in three consecutive games since Salvador Perez from Sept. 14-16, 2021.

Velázquez’s home run Wednesday was a two-run blast that gave the Royals a one-run lead against White Sox starter Touki Toussaint, who otherwise shut down Kansas City by allowing just two runs on two hits and three walks in six innings.

“Just [trying] to stay with my approach,” Velázquez said. “... I know the field is really big, but when you know you’ve got power and know you can hit the ball hard, you know that anything you hit can go out.”

Velázquez’s 36 games are still a small sample, and it would be hard to ask him to sustain that kind of production. But it’s hard not to be impressed by his sheer strength -- and what that strength could mean for the Royals in the future.

Velázquez’s ability to hit the ball to all fields -- as illustrated by his three homers this week -- gives the Royals a middle-of-the-lineup weapon. Even if he’s not launching home runs every day, he has the potential for gap-to-gap power, especially at The K.

“Power hitters, we normally want to pull the ball thinking that we can hit homers to the left field,” Velázquez said. “But we have to understand that we can hit homers anywhere. Right now, I’m trying to stay middle, and whatever happens, I’ll take it.”

The Royals traded for Velázquez because they felt they were lacking depth with right-handed hitters. They’ve committed to giving him a good look in Kansas City as this season winds down to see what they have in him.

Velázquez is playing his way into an everyday role -- not simply a fourth outfielder and power bat off the bench.

“If you can hit the ball out of the park consistently, you can change the game with one swing,” Quatraro said. “We saw that today. He’s done that numerous times. He’s played a good outfield. But his value is going to be driving the ball out of the ballpark, and if he continues to do that at this rate, that’s incredible.”

Velázquez said he’s trying not to think about proving anything, only that he can play and produce every day. He’s settling into the Royals’ clubhouse well, too, and he praised the hitting coaches for helping him with his approach and preparation.

“Getting consistent at-bats and playing more here has helped me to improve,” Velázquez said. “Take my approach, take my consistency in the game to another level [rather than] playing every two or three days.

“I’m just trying to prove that I can play the game, and that I can help my teammates in any situation in the game. That’s all I’m doing when I go out there and try to do my best to help them.”

Velázquez did strike out swinging in the ninth against Bryan Shaw as the Royals tried to complete a comeback for the second game in a row. After Kansas City starter Jordan Lyles (4-16) allowed three runs -- two on Andrew Vaughn’s homer in the sixth -- in 5 1/3 innings, the Royals came within a run in the eighth on Edward Olivares’ pinch-hit homer.

“Two bad pitches I wish I could get back to [Luis Robert Jr.] and Vaughn, the double and homer,” Lyles said. “Scattered some hits out there, one per inning almost. Two runs in the sixth after getting the lead, I need to make better pitches.”