By Adam Gardner | May 28, 2026
The Kansas City Royals were swept by the New York Yankees, again, and it’s time to change something.
Just like April’s series in New York, the Yankees won a close first game of the series and then hammered the Royals in the final two games. The Royals finish 0-6 against the Yankees in 2026 and have lost 14 in a row to New York.
The postseason hopes, for all intents and purposes, are over. I joked earlier this week that at least the Royals weren’t Detroit – but now KC is back tied with the Tigers for last in the American League Central.
The Yankees series was a disaster, starting with the blown win on Monday and finishing with a pair of blowouts on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The clown show that was Tuesday’s game
Everything about the way the New York Yankees destroyed KC on Tuesday night should make Royals fans angry. I’ll start with starting pitcher Baily Falter, who has been terrible regardless of what role he’s been in this season.
That didn’t stop him from trying to shift blame for his abysmal outing. I guess it wasn’t really his fault the Yankees were hitting rocket after rocket against him – the average exit velocity from the Yankees against Falter was 100.3 mph. It was actually the Royals fault for allowing him to pitch.
“Just didn’t really have anything behind the ball today, so I don’t know if that’s just being in the bullpen for five days and then getting a start or not really having a role,” Falter said after the game. “Just rolling with the punches right now.”
So he’s saying he doesn’t feel like he knows his role, thus he wasn’t really prepared?
Falter went on, “Trying to stay ready, just in case I do get in the game. And then another last-minute start. Kind of just throws a wrench in the plan.”
He’s completely shifting blame for getting nuked by New York onto management for starting the game. Who exactly does he think he is, and what role did he expect to have? He’s been used as a long guy in the bullpen, Cole Ragans and Kris Bubic are both on the Injured List – did he not expect to get a spot start? I find it hard to believe manager Matt Quatraro didn’t give Falter a heads up on this idea.
Whoever the fault belongs to, Falter got torched for 7 runs while getting just 7 outs. He gave up three home runs in that span.
You could argue some of that was unfair after Jac Caglianone’s catch in the first inning was overturned, which led to one of the home runs and 3 added runs.
There’s another thing to be pissed off about – how did Caglianone’s catch get overturned? The call on the field was a catch, which means the video evidence has to clearly show the call was wrong. But that isn’t the case.
You can clearly see the ball enter Jac’s glove before hitting the ground on the replay and the ball never comes out of the glove. I’m not on a conspiracy about the Yankees getting the benefit of a replay call that is headquartered in New York, but whoever made that decision clearly did a pathetic job. That just can’t happen.
That all snowballed with the aptly named Falter on the mound and by the time Bobby Witt Jr. stepped to the plate in the bottom of the third inning and hit a solo home run, the Royals were already down by 9 runs.
Witt’s homer didn’t spark any offense, though. It was the only run given up by the Yankees as Cam Schlittler pitched a gem. Schlittler is a definite Cy Young candidate through the first third of the season, so the timing of his start against the Royals couldn’t have come on a worse day.
Schlittler and Ryan Yarbrough held the Royals to a combined 6 hits and just that Witt home run, and the Yankees continued to destroy Royals pitching. Luinder Avila gave up 3 runs in 3 innings. Eli Morgan gave up 2 runs in 1 inning. Tyler Tolbert – the infielder – took one for the team and pitched the ninth inning.
Steven Cruz might have looked the best out of the four *actual* pitchers Tuesday night, striking out 4 Yankees in 1.2 innings, but he still gave up a home run. Every Yankees starter recorded at least 2 hits. That’s little league stuff.
You could see it coming
This was all so predictable to the point that I’m angry I didn’t wager heavily on the Yankees. After Monday’s game, I openly asked on Twitter, “Curious to see what happens after yesterday’s blown game. Do they fight or tailspin?”
We saw earlier this year that this version of the Royals is the tailspin version. Faced with a tough situation on Tuesday, the Royals:
- Started a pitcher who apparently couldn’t prepare for something he’s done 84 other times in his career (start a game).
- Couldn’t handle a bad replay setback and let things get worse.
- Couldn’t step up to the challenge of facing a great pitcher.
- Couldn’t find anyone in the bullpen to stop the Yankees from hitting the ball.
Credit, I guess, to Vinnie Pasquantino for answering more questions about the Royals losing after the game. In Anne Rogers story, Vinnie said, “It’s past Memorial Day now. We got to dig ourselves out. And I think we’re capable of doing it. But we do have to do it.”
At least he’s being realistic and noting that the season is slipping away. Unfortunately, Quatraro doesn’t see the need for anything to change, saying “There’s no alternative but to stay the course. We’re not going to blow things up … You got to trust in the people and the processes that you have.”
I’ve said this before, the people and the processes they have are not working. You can’t continue to do the same thing over and over and expect something new to happen. It is Quatraro’s job and it is General Manager J.J. Piccolo’s job to identify the people and processes that aren’t working and correct them. The processes aren’t working. FIX IT!
We might be seeing some evidence of correction? As I was writing Wednesday morning, the Royals designated Falter for assignment, effectively ending his time in KC. There’s another wrench in Falter’s plans, eh?
Wednesday not much better
The good news is Noah Cameron looked pretty good. He pitched 5 innings, struck out 4, walked 1, gave up 4 hits and allowed 2 runs. He got some help from John Schreiber who came on in relief with runners on in the sixth inning and immediately got Aaron Judge to ground into a double play.
There are the positives. The negatives are Nick Mears and Mason Black giving up 5 runs in 2.2 innings of work and the offense mustering just 4 hits against Gerrit Cole in his second game back since his injury in 2024.
The Royals managed just 10 hits and 1 run in the final two games of the Yankees series. Yes, they faced Schlittler and Cole who are really good pitchers, but it’s just unacceptable.
It’s time to change
I simply don’t know how the Royals can move forward without making a change to their major league hitting staff. Kansas City is 28th out of 30 teams in runs scored this season, but that’s even misleading because they’ve played two more games than Boston and have only scored 3 more runs.
I mentioned in my very first post here on The Looping Liner that I wasn’t here to deliver hot takes and scream for people’s jobs. This isn’t a hot take – there is continued proof that the Royals hitters aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.
Alec Zumwalt is the director of hitting performance/player development. That title is new this season, but he’s effectively been the hitting coach since May of 2022.
The Royals ranked 24th in runs scored in 2022. They were 23rd in 2023, 13th in the 2024 postseason year, and 26th in 2025. That pleasantly average 2024 season was buoyed by a fluky team performance with runners in scoring position – the 2023, 2025 and 2026 seasons are much more in line with each other, showing that 2024 was the outlier.
I don’t enjoy saying this, but it’s time to change the hitting director and Zumwalt has to go.
I don’t make this call to action lightly. This is a man with a family who was no doubt worked very hard for the Royals.
He was named the scout of the year for the franchise when the Royals won the World Series in 2015. He has been there working with Bobby Witt Jr. as Witt has become one of the brightest stars in all of baseball.
But there really aren’t any overall signs of progress for this team. Pasquantino has regressed in 2026. Maikel Garcia has regressed in 2026.
Jac Caglianone, Isaac Collins and Carter Jensen are struggling. Some of that is natural as pitchers and teams adjust to young hitters, but why are KC’s young hitters unable to make their own adjustments?
Quatraro has said over and over again that the team continues to work hard and go through their processes. I’m glad they’re working hard, but hard work doesn’t mean shit when it isn’t the right work.
The offense can’t score runs and it’s time to change. Today is the right day to do it. The Royals are off before heading on a 10-game road swing. The team is 3-13 in its past 16 games and someone has to be held accountable. You can’t fire an entire team, so Zumwalt has to be the one to go.
It sucks that it didn’t work with Zumwalt running the hitting department but, simply, it’s time to change.
