Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic rears back to throw against the Brewers at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday, March 31, 2025. Benny Sieu Imagn Images

MILWAUKEE

It had been nearly two years since Kansas City Royals left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic last made a start in a Major League Baseball game.

Bubic’s most recent big-league start, until Monday, was an April 15, 2023 game against the Atlanta Braves. That was Bubic’s final appearance before he underwent Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.

A long recovery followed. Then came a detour through the Royals’ bullpen. He actually thrived in a relief role last year, compiling a 2.67 ERA in 27 appearances.

The Royals always envisioned Bubic as a member of the starting rotation, however, and this spring he earned a coveted spot as KC’s No. 4 starter.

He hasn’t looked back. On Monday he pitched six shutout innings against the Milwaukee Brewers. He registered eight strikeouts and became the first Royals starting pitcher to make it through six innings this season.

Make it through is an understatement. He was fantastic.

“There were some butterflies a little bit more before the game because these games are counting now,” Bubic said. “It was pretty cool with their (Brewers’) home opener and having a big crowd.”

The 27-year-old Stanford product said he experienced “the normal butterflies” before the game, but, “once the game got going, (we) got some early runs on the board and it just felt like any other game.”

Bubic was aggressive in the strike zone and relied on his four-seam fastball to set up his secondary pitches. His goal was to keep the Brewers off-balance and work both sides of the plate.

He accomplished that objective throughout the game. In the first inning, he struck out the side, retiring Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich and William Contreras in order.

Later, Bubic worked out of a bases-loaded situation. The result was an efficient 95-pitch performance that included five groundouts and one popout.

“The four-seamer up was kind of playing, especially with two strikes,” he said. “So that did a lot of the heavy lifting today. We mixed in both sliders, the changeup and the sinker.”

Bubic said his stint in the KC bullpen sharpened his aggressive mentality. He explained how he learned to treat every start like he is preparing to throw one relief inning. That allowed him to shift his focus to recording outs and not worrying so much about having precise movement on his pitches.

“You go in there for an inning, you don’t really have time to waste pitches,” he said. “You are coming in there and attacking guys right away.

“So as a starter now, it’s kind of similar in the fact that instead of looking at the game as a whole, like I’m throwing 100 pitches today — or 6 to 7 innings — now, in my head, I’m a reliever for one inning. And then I’m a reliever for the next inning, and so forth.”

The Royals needed a productive start from somebody. Their top three starters struggled with their command in games one through three against the Cleveland Guardians. That led to walks, which in turn led to the bullpen needing to cover a lot of early innings.

Bubic made no early exit. In fact, he came close to matching his career high in strikeouts — 12. He has whiffed a dozen twice: against the Chicago Cubs in 2021 and San Francisco Giants in 2023.

“He was ready,” Royals catcher Salvador Perez said. “He prepared himself in the offseason and in spring training. He was pretty good. The fastball was good today and everything, the slider, sweeper, changeup. Everything was good today and proved he is ready.”

Bubic collected his first win as a starter since an Oct. 1, 2022 game against the Cleveland Guardians. That afternoon he threw five shutout innings with eight strikeouts.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro is excited to see what the future — the rest of this season — holds for Bubic.

“We knew coming into the season that he is a pretty darn good guy pitching the fourth day of the season for us,” Quatraro said. “We’re really confident with him, very comfortable and happy for him, too.

“I mean, he worked hard. We saw what he accomplished out of the bullpen. But to be back in the rotation is a big accomplishment for him.”