You should hear how Kansas City Royals broadcasters Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler talk about Ty France. When he comes to the plate, it’s like they dread nothing more in life.
“Can Ty France make an out here?” Hudler plaintively asked this past week. He was referencing France’s performance at Kauffman Stadium, where he’s a .473/.586/.800 hitter with three home runs and nine doubles in 15 career games.
“He will make an out tonight,” Lefebvre replied. “I’m going to make that prediction.”
Hudler seemingly expressed genuine relief.
“OK!” Hudler exclaimed. “Gosh. He just rakes. Hard to contain him.”
Containment is Kansas City’s only hope against France, not only at Kauffman. In his career, France is 34-for-83 (.410) with three home runs, 13 doubles, and 14 RBIs for a 1.124 OPS against them. France just kills the Royals, period, as if he were carrying a guillotine while stalking Louis XVI around Versailles in the late 18th century.
France’s results show his dominance over the Royals, but they also come with an amusing commentary. Whenever it becomes France’s turn to bat, Lefebvre and Hudler talk like they cannot wait for the next man up.
Do yourself a favor and watch a replay of Minnesota’s game against the Royals on Wednesday night. First, doing so would allow you to consume Minnesota Twins content without necessarily having to watch their next game, where you risk seeing another demoralizing defeat. The one from Wednesday? A guaranteed winner!
Even if you don’t want to replay Joe Ryan‘s dominant start in the third game of the series, instead focus on France’s at-bats, where he went 3-for-4 with a home run, his first of the season.
On both sides of the ball, France gives off a vibe that the Twins knew what they were doing when they signed him as a free agent this offseason.
France had been stinging the ball sharply coming into the KC series, yet didn’t have much to show with his results. He experienced particularly bad luck in St. Louis thanks to outfielder Victor Scott II and infielder Brendan Donovan. Both made otherworldly plays on defense.
“Eventually, the tides are going to turn,” France said. “You keep putting the ball on the barrel, they’ll eventually find some green out there. Just staying the course.”
While others have more range, France has also been playing strong defense at first base, where he has picked numerous balls off the dirt — hits and throws — and turned them into outs. Baldelli wanted someone stable at first base just for defense after losing Gold Glover Carlos Santana in free agency.
“If it’s in my area, it’s my job to catch it,” France said. “So I take a lot of pride in that, and have worked countless, countless hours on it.”
Considering everything that has gone wrong so far with the Twins season, and everything that could continue to go wrong, bringing France aboard was like finding a Coupé de Ville at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. Harrison Bader and Danny Coulombe also appear to be helpful players. (If only ownership had loosened the purse strings to allow for more great moves, Falvey.)
France already had singled Wednesday to put Lefevbre and Hudler on alert when he made good in the fourth on Lefebvre’s prediction of not getting a hit every time. France lined a pitch, not all that hard, in the direction of right-hander Seth Lugo‘s face. Lugo caught it in self-defense for an out. In a sense, France’s out was good luck; if Lugo hadn’t caught it, Michael Massey appeared ready to turn a 4-3 double play. The tides, even the little waves, were turning for France. The Royals booth appreciated a reprieve.
“Told you he’d made an out,” Lefebvre said. “But it took a Gold Glove play by a Gold Glove pitcher to get the out.”
The Twins created a scoring threat again for France’s next at-bat in the sixth when Carlos Correa hit a double to left with two outs. Struggling with his command, Lugo fell behind left-handed slugger Trevor Larnach 3-1. The Royals signaled for an intentional walk.
“Just put him on,” Hudler said.
Lefebvre could hardly believe it.
“To go after Ty France, of all people,” Lefebvre said with acerbity.
Had the Royals coaching staff not read the game notes?
France began to channel his inner Michael Jordan/”Last Dance” meme and stepped to the plate.
“They intentionally walked Larny,” France said later. “So [it became] a little more personal.”
Having gone north of 100 pitches, Lugo’s command was leaving him, but he still got ahead of France 0-and-2. His next pitch was a four-seamer at the top of the zone, but not inside enough. France turned it inside out for a sharp single to right, finding the big hole between first and second, driving in Minnesota’s second run.
“You got him 0-and-2, and he gives him a cookie,” Hudler said with measurable disdain.
Home runs still pay the bills. Still, the front office and Baldelli have pointed out that one of the reasons the Twins liked France is his contact skills and his ability to create success in ways beyond simply swinging for the downs. As Hudler pointed out, France got a cookie from Lugo, but he still had to do something with it. It was a perfect pitch to drive the other way, which he did. Not a lot of hitters execute with France’s versatility.
“That was a big at-bat,” France said. “Well, they were holding Larny (Trevor Larnach) on and playing me up the middle. It’s always been a part of my game that I try to utilize. I got a good pitch to do it on, and I put it where I wanted.”
France told Zone Coverage how he thinks all of the Ty France Francophobia started.
“I remember one series at home in Seattle,” France said.
France started establishing himself against the league, and the Royals, in 2021. In his first full season with the Seattle Mariners, he batted .444/.531/.519 with four walks and two doubles in seven games against the KC. Very good, even great, but nothing to lose your head over when comparing France’s splits in similar time against the Tampa Bay Rays, Twins, and Toronto Blue Jays.
Then came April 23, 2022, at Safeco Field, and France could no longer hide among the crowd. After quietly going 0-for-4 in the series opener the night before, France went 5-for-6 with a home run, five RBIs, and three runs scored in a 13-7 drubbing of the Royals.
France helped the Mariners complete a three-game sweep the next night, going 3-for-5 with another home run. In the bottom of the 12th, with nobody out and the free runner at second base (the Manfred Man, if you will), the Royals walked France intentionally. Jesse Winker, the next man up, dumped a single into right to push across the winning run anyway.
There was no getting around France winning AL Player of the Week, sharing the honors with Miguel Cabrera after going 13-for-26 with three homers and 10 RBIs.
“I had a really good series against them,” France said, “and just kind of snowballed from there.”
Royals in 2021: walked him intentionally with the game’s outcome on the line, despite having almost no book on France.
Royals in 2025: walked someone else intentionally to pitch to France on purpose despite having volumes of his history against the Royals.
In fairness, the current Royals only used one intentional ball against Larnach to put him on, which France acknowledged. He also adjusted the outrage level properly.
“It’s like a slap in the face instead of a jab, you know?” France said.
No matter, when Royals manager Matt Quatraro decided to pitch to France again, he gave them another data point, hitting a Chris Stratton slider (not a terrible pitch, either) deep into the Twins bullpen in left for his first home run with his new team.
It didn’t seem so new to the Royals Booth, which had been sent into full retreat by France by this point.
“And that is another hit for Ty France against the Royals,” Lefevbre said, his head no doubt shaking with antipathy.
“My goodness,” Hudler added. “He owns this place. Can’t get him out.”
France hit 13 homers a season ago in 140 games with the Mariners and Reds amid a fractured heel that accompanied long slumps — which probably were related to the injury. France hasn’t been healthy, or healthy for long, since the first part of ’22.
“It’s nice to know I still have the homer in the tank,” France said.
It’s nice to know the Twins have France at first base and in the middle of the lineup. Whether the team works out its issues after starting so poorly remains to be seen, but it’s more likely to happen with France playing every day in the way he has.
