The Kansas City Royals are 5-8 through 13 games.
The Kansas City Royals are 5-8 to start the 2026 MLB season. Let’s take a look at how they got there.
Starting off with Opening Day, the Royals went to Atlanta to open up their season. It started just as the 2025 season went, little to no offense. It didn’t help that Cole Ragans gave up four runs in his first start, as the Royals only recorded five hits with no runs scored and drop the opener 6-0.
Game two was a step forward as the Royals took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning after a Salvador Perez home run and scoring a run on a Matt Olson error. Michael Wacha dealt, going six innings, allowing three hits, with zero earned runs and seven strikeouts.
Carlos Estevez, a proven closer, entered in the ninth after being very effective last year getting the save 42 out of 48 attempts. That wasn’t the case for this game as he gave up a 386-foot walk off grand slam to Dominic Smith. The Royals dropped game two, 6-2.
Game 3 was an improvement, offense showed up and pitching looked great, the spotlight being rookie Carter Jensen as he hit a solo shot and drove in a run on a sac fly.
Seth Lugo pitched six and a third innings, allowing five hits, with zero earned runs, and three strikeouts. After the implosion from Estevez the night prior, Lucas Erceg entered the game in a save situation and shut the door on the Braves resulting in a 4-1 win.
Home Opener vs. Twins
The Royals then headed to Kansas City for their home opener. Not a whole lot that came from the offense aside from a two-run shot from Kyle Isbel and a solo shot from Isaac Collins. Kris Bubic was dominant, he gave up a solo shot to Wallner but then settled in as he pitched six innings, with one earned run, only two hits, with four strikeouts as the Royals won 3-1.
In game two the Royals offense took on Joe Ryan. Kansas City has historically been owned by Ryan, but this game was different. The Royals got to him, with nine hits and five earned runs over four innings. Kansas City scored 13 runs which consisted of a sixth inning grand slam from Jonathan India, and a solo shot from Kyle Isbel. Meanwhile, Noah Cameron looked great going five innings, allowing four, hits one run, with five strikeouts. But with this game it wasn’t all offense as Daniel Lynch IV, Alex Lange, and Bailey Faulter combined for eight earned runs over two and a thirds innings. The Royals won 13-9.
The next night, offense was almost nonexistent. Ragans pitched great, going five innings, only allowing four hits, with one run, but zero earned runs, and eight strikeouts. Unfortunately, his great performance was wasted as the offense only scored one run.
Home Series vs. Brewers
After wrapping up that series they stay in Kansas City and take on the 6-1 Brewers. Friday night’s game was postponed and made up in a double header on Saturday. Wacha was originally scheduled to start but due to an illness he missed his start, so Avila got the nod. Avila really struggled, he gave up five runs, on eight hits through only three innings pitched and the Royals lose 5-2.
Game two felt like a different story. Pitching and offense both clicked. The Royals scored eight runs, six coming in the sixth with the “keep the line moving” mentality. Salvador Perez also hit a solo shot, and the Royals go on to win 8-2.
Game three was a rubber match with Kris Bubic on the mound. Bubic had a rocky outing giving up four runs on four hits in five innings pitched.
The Royals scored five runs but ultimately lost 8-5.
Road Series vs. Guardians
After wrapping up the first home stand of the season the Royals headed to the AL Central leading Guardians. In game one Michael Wacha really was almost untouchable, he pitched seven innings only allowing three hits with one earned run and three punch outs.
Carter Jensen hit a solo shot, and Jonathan India hit a two-run blast, and the Royals take game one 4-2. The rest of the series did not go well, as Cleveland evened things with a 2-1 victory before blowing KC out in the finale 10-2.
Dropping a third-straight game on Thursday, the Royals lost their series opener to the Chicago White Sox.
In summary, it hasn’t been the best start to the season, but it could be worse. Fans are hopeful as the bottom of the order (which was noticeably Kansas City’s biggest problem and concern) has actually over-performed based on expectations. If the bottom of the order can continue to perform at this rate, and if the top of the order can finally click, the Kansas City Royals could emerge as a dangerous team.
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