KANSAS CITY -- Nelson Velázquez sent a ball 429 feet in just 5.5 seconds.

But while his fountain-bound homer left in a hurry, the slugger made sure to take his time around the basepaths -- 29.45 seconds to be exact -- the sixth-slowest trot out of 213 homers in the Majors this season.

Velázquez earned his due time on the bases by reaching base three times in the Royals’ 10-1 victory over the White Sox on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium.

And that trot? Expect more.

“When you see everyone doing the funny stuff and creating their own flow, you just want to be one of them,” Velázquez said. “You want to create something for yourself, so I created that for myself and I feel good doing it.”

The Royals like watching it, too. For the 16th time in 45 games with Kansas City, Velázquez left the yard -- 58 homers over a 162-game pace. A little stutter step before reaching third and a slow walk over home plate is the prize for the 25-year-old designated hitter who is getting his first real shot at playing a full season.

Velázquez has now homered twice in four games after hitting .179 in Spring Training with no homers and just one double over 39 plate appearances. So why can’t he have some fun?

“He’s strong, man,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He puts good at-bats together. Even last year, home runs are an easy thing to quantify, but his swing is short, he puts together good at-bats. He’s going to strikeout like anybody, but he’s got the ability to hurt you in a lot of ways. He will take walks, he’ll take you the other way, he obviously drives the ball out of the park. Spring Training can be a very misleading sample …”

Despite a rough spring, and Nick Pratto’s red-hot March, the Royals felt strongly about Velázquez as the designated hitter because of the power surge he displayed after being acquired by the Cubs in July.

Velázquez, who hit just .174 over 11 Cactus League games last season with Chicago, made a point to ignore spring results and instead believe in his approach.

“Since 2019, I made the decision that I don’t care what I do in Spring Training,” Velázquez said. “If I hit homers or hit .300, I just want to prepare myself and get to my best position for when the season starts. That’s all I focused on during Spring Training and after that, it’s just about trusting everything I do.”

The Royals have now scored four or more runs in four of their past five games, and Velázquez, who hit sixth Thursday, has proven to be a big bat in the middle of Kansas City’s order, whether it’s hitting homers or not.

Veláquez came to the plate with one out and nobody on in the seventh and worked a six-pitch walk after an RBI single in the second. Hunter Renfroe followed by working a walk and two singles later Velázquez scored on a Kyle Isbel two-run single. The Royals ended up sending 11 to the plate and scoring eight runs after a White Sox error with the bases loaded allowed three runs to score.

“I made sure to let Nelly know that that whole thing started with his at-bat,” Quatraro said. “You issue a couple walks in the lineup and then things start to snowball, things start to get away from you.”

Kansas City had two games slip away in Baltimore, but Seth Lugo followed up his scoreless Royals debut with 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball, striking out three and earning his first win. Chicago had eight hits on Lugo, but the veteran righty induced three double plays and Hunter Renfroe picked up his 66th outfield assist since 2017, the most in the Majors in that span, with a dart to home.

Through the first seven games, Royals starters now have a 1.43 ERA, allowing just 24 hits across 44 innings to earn a league-best six quality starts.

“They’re exceeding [expectations],” general manager J.J. Piccollo said before Thursday’s game. “I don’t think we can expect a 1.45 ERA [entering Thursday] throughout the season. If we are, we will be playing in October. But it’s hard not to get excited.”

If Velázquez can keep raking, it’s not hard to see why players across Major League Baseball believed the Royals could surprise in 2024, too.

“It’s about trusting everything that they throw at you, that you’re going to hit it hard,” Velázquez said. “For me, it’s like, no matter what they throw -- they have to throw it over the plate.”

And if they do, they may be watching Velázquez’s 30 seconds of fun.