By Adam Gardner | Aug. 27, 2026
The streak is dead.
The Kansas City Royals nine-game winning streak was snapped Wednesday night in a 3-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. This moves the Royals to 9 games back in the American League Wild Card standings. With 28 games left, the impossible has now become … more impossible.
There were chances
Randy Dobnak made another good start for the Royals on Wednesday, giving up 3 runs in 6 innings of work. He allowed a 3-run homer in the fourth inning, so if that pitch goes differently, who knows how Wednesday night goes.
But you can’t change the past and that pitch ended up over the wall. It’s not like the Royals didn’t create chances to get back in it, though.
KC left eight runners on base and were just 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The Royals loaded the bases in the third inning but back-to-back strikeouts by Jac Caglianone and Salvador Perez killed the threat.
Carter Jensen and Bobby Witt Jr. had back-to-back singles with two outs in the eighth inning, but Caglianone grounded out on the first pitch he saw to end that threat.
Another two-out rally fizzled to end the game in the ninth inning. Nick Loftin doubled and John Rave had an infield single, but Isaac Collins struck out for the final out.
The Royals had more strikeouts (9) than hits+walks (8) which is a great callback to how the offense behaved earlier this season. It was a great reminder of how the team put themselves in this position.
Wild Card chances
I think I’ve used the word “fun” approximately 100 times to describe the Royals winning streak and it’s been fun to even take a look at the Wild Card standings no matter how improbable it is.
Wednesday’s loss narrows those slim chances even more. The Royals now need to finish 22-6 to reach 81-81 on the season, and that might not even be good enough for the final Wild Card spot.
The Twins held that final spot with a losing record when I first started tracking the situation, but Cleveland has been nearly as hot as the Royals and have taken that spot over at two games over .500. Even if the Royals finish at 81-81, it might not be enough.
They need to roll off another nine-game winning streak for a realistic shot at making the postseason. This stretch of play has been fun (there’s that word again), and I even admitted to having a small sliver of hope, but it’s still a long ways from feeling real.
Unless the Royals can match their longest winning streak since 2017, we can probably shut the door on unrealistic dreams. Check back with me after the weekend, maybe I’ll take a big gulp of the blue Kool-Aid again and change my mind.
Vinnie’s back
Vinnie Pasquantino has played nine games since returning from the Injured List and he’s not just “back” but he’s “Back!”
The Pasquatch has been the hitter we hoped for all season in those nine games. He’s slashing .333/.421/.636 for an OPS of 1.058. He has 2 home runs and 4 doubles to go along with 5 walks. This is the middle of the order bat the club hoped Vinnie would be in 2026.
We have to ask: Is this the real Vinnie Pasquantino? This hot stretch has helped him bring his season-long numbers closer to what he’s done the past two seasons. He was a reliable bat in the 2024 playoff season, hitting 19 home runs and notching a 114 OPS+ in 131 games.
Vinnie followed that up with his best season in 2025: 32 home runs, 33 doubles, 113 RBIs and an OPS+ of 119.
After a dreadful start to 2026, Vinnie has upped his OPS+ to 99 (100 is league average). Even if he doesn’t stay quite as hot, he can still finish the season at or above average. That should give the Royals and fans hope for what can happen in 2027.
What the Royals need is for August/September Vinnie to show up in April, too. His OPS in the final two months of the season is .200 better than the first of the season for his career. It’s a problem because it’s a part of the reason the Royals buried themselves in a hole this year.
It’s exciting to imagine a lineup with Witt, Jensen, Caglianone, Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia, and then whatever the Royals do to bolster that group – and it does need bolstered.
Downside of the winning streak?
We talked about the hole the Royals dug for themselves in Monday’s post, and how they are still that same team that struggled in many areas.
I focused more on why the insane run to the end of season probably wasn’t likely because of the flaws of this team – and that’s still true – but there’s another thing about this winning streak that could be a problem.
Will the Royals Front Office look at this streak and decide that this has been the real version of the team and ignore all the faults that caused such a poor record? Will this hot stretch fool the club into thinking that not much needs to be done to turn the team into a contender next year?
I really hope not. The entire pitching staff needs help/depth. Starters and relievers. I mentioned five names for the lineup but what about the other four spots on the lineup card each day?
Kyle Isbel, Tyler Tolbert, Nick Loftin, John Rave, Michael Massey … they’ve all had bursts of quality play but they feel more like “pieces” and not “answers.” I would love to pencil Massey in at second base because of his glove and his hitting ability, but he has struggled to stay on the field.
Isaac Collins has taken a step back after a solid 2025 rookie season in Milwaukee. I wouldn’t go into the offseason comfortable with Collins as the starting left fielder.
Free agent spending and potential trades both need to be explored this offseason to improve the Royals roster heading into 2027. But that’s not going to be so easy.
Pending lockout
I haven’t touched on it much because I’m more focused on the actual season that’s being played, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t staring down the barrel of a lockout this offseason. MLB owners and the Player’s Union are at odds primarily over a salary cap. Owners want one, the union doesn’t.
It is extremely likely the owners will lock out the union on Dec. 1 when the current agreement expires. Both sides will dig in their heels. Nobody can say today if or how many games could be impacted next season.
“The owners might believe with every bone in their collective bodies that they are willing to miss an entire season or more — whatever it takes to get to a salary cap. The players, too, might believe the same on their end, that they’ll fight as long as they need,” Evan Drellich said on The Athletic recently. “But what matters is how they’ll feel when checks are on the line. At that point, the sides will have to stay strong every day. And no one actually knows whether they will.”
Team general managers and players won’t have contact with each other during a lockout. GMs won’t be making trades during a lockout. So when/if the expected lockout comes to an end next year, there will be a flurry of free agent and trade activity prior to the season.
Hopefully the Royals have a plan for this and are prepared before the lockout begins. The worst thing that could happen is they get caught with their pants down and trot out the exact same roster next season expecting different results.
Around the majors
School is back in session and that means the MLB postseason is right around the corner. What are other teams and postseason races looking like as we approach September?
The Tampa Bay Rays are trying to hold off the New York Yankees atop the American League East, holding a 3.5 game lead. The Boston Red Sox are 6 games back of the Rays and could be a dark horse down the stretch in the East.
The Chicago White Sox hold a 2.5 game lead on the Guardians, but Cleveland has made up 3 games in the past week and a half. Cleveland made a late charge to win the division in 2025 – can they do it again this season?
The American League West is currently led by the Houston Astros and their 66-67 record. The Texas Rangers are 66-68 and the Seattle Mariners are 64-70. Anything can happen in the wild west.
Atlanta has a 4.5 game lead on the Phillies in the NL East, but like Cleveland, Philadelphia’s recent stretch has cut a chunk of games off that Braves lead. We could see an exciting finish between familiar foes.
The Dodgers are comfortably ahead of the San Diego Padres in the NL West (8.5 games). One of my favorite things in recent Octobers has been watching the Dodgers and Padres battle in the postseason late at night. I’d be thrilled to see that again.
The Brewers are 6.5 ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. Those two teams play each other seven more times the remainder of this season, four in Milwaukee and three in Chicago, so anything is on the table.
It should be a fun end to the season and I hope to enjoy it as much as any baseball fan can before the reality of a lockout descends upon us.
