By Adam Gardner | April 9, 2026
The Royals first road trip to a division foe ended with a thud. After winning the series opener, Kansas City struggled in two losses to end the series and need to find life in their bats.
Michael Wacha was a stud in the opener as the Royals picked up the 4-2 win. Noah Cameron followed that up with another strong outing, but Cleveland won in a walk-off. Then everything went wrong in the finale as Cole Ragans had to leave the game early and the bullpen let the game blow up in the late innings.
Two weeks into the season, the Royals are 5-7 with a -12 run differential. Not where we hoped to be as Royals fans, but they’ve certainly suffered tougher starts to a season.
Strikeouts are a problem
The Royals struck out 36 times against the Guardians, with 14 strikeouts in each of the two losses. It’s simply too many strikeouts – they are tied for ninth most in MLB as of Wednesday afternoon with 108 strikeouts on the season.
In Tuesday’s loss, the Royals had 1 hit – Carter Jensen’s homer – 8 walks and 14 strikeouts. That’s an odd line. They had 8 guys get on from a walk and couldn’t do anything with it because they couldn’t make contact.
I’ll be the first to caution everyone that it’s still too early in the season to make sweeping generalizations, but the sticks need to pick it up otherwise this will be a wasted year in KC.
Bobby Witt Jr. finally recorded his first extra base hit of the season on Wednesday, the team’s 12th game of the season. It’s the longest stretch of his career without an extra base hit and hopefully he won’t get close to that the rest of the season.
It’s not Witt that I’m worried about, and again, it’s too early to be “worried” about much. But for this season to be a success, guys like Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and even Witt are going to need to bring more to the table and be more like themselves going forward.
Tough luck for Cole Ragans
Wednesday started out great for Cole Ragans. He buzzed through the first two Cleveland batters of the game, striking out both. The third batter, though, ripped a line drive back at Ragans, hitting him on the throwing hand.
Ragans struggled to find a feel for the ball after that, walking the next batter on four pitches, then throwing a fastball down the heart of the plate that was hit for a double. That caused the Royals to pull him from the game with what was later announced as a left thumb contusion.
Ragans was visibly frustrated and chucked his glove against the dugout wall. I’m sure he was frustrated that he didn’t get a longer leash to stay in the game, he was frustrated that he got hit on his throwing hand, and I’m guessing there was at least some worry deep in his mind that he might miss more time because of this.
“I want to be out there,” Ragans was quoted after the game by Anne Rogers. “I felt really good prior to that. Just want to keep going. I know we’re in a long stretch of games right here, so just trying to do as much as I can.”
The Royals ace only pitched 61.2 innings in 2025 and, as a competitor, wants to be out there for his team. Hopefully he can recover and be ready for his next start. The Royals are saying that Ragans should be ready for his next start.
White Sox coming to town
Maybe this is exactly what the Royals needed to “get right” in 2026. The Chicago White Sox will visit Kansas City for four games this weekend (weather permitting – forecast doesn’t look encouraging).
The Royals went 10-3 vs the White Sox in 2025 and 12-1 against them in 2024. It’s silly to try to declare what “needs” to happen, but anything less than three wins in this series would feel like a disappointment.
The White Sox are coming into the series with a 4-8 record and -29 run differential. The Royals have scored 4 more runs than Chicago and have given up 13 fewer runs.
New City Connect uniforms
The Royals officially announced their new City Connect uniforms this week. They put out a video on social media Wednesday morning, then unveiled the new uniforms on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the new uniforms. What do you think?
They’ve definitely gone in a different direction than their original City Connect uniforms. These are brighter, more vibrant. I’m not a pink (fuchsia?) fan myself, but this gradient look actually works.
The Royals continue to bring the fountain theme into their style as the uniforms are named “Forever Fountains” in honor of Kansas City, Missouri City Hall adopting the City of Fountains identity in 1991. The “R” on the chest is inspired by the Royals original 1969 mark.
The numbers are also the same font as the official logo of Kansas City. The heart on the sleeve represents the heartland, plus it’s very common to see t-shirts with KC inside a heart.
Inside the neck collar is “Hey hey hey hey” which is a nod to the Beatles song that plays after every win at Kauffman Stadium. I like that idea – a subtle reminder to the players when they put it on to go out there and hear the song.
This is a changeup from the Royals original City Connect uniforms, seen here:
The Royals have been embracing the fountain theme for several years now. Fountains have been the trademark of Kauffman Stadium for decades, and I’m sure they’ll be incorporated wherever the new stadium winds up in a few years.
The KC and the crown on the chest in the original City Connect uniform also played into the City of Fountains idea and the social media tag for the Royals has become #FountainsUp.
Reasons for alternates?
That’s the whole idea of the City Connect uniforms in the first place – teams are able to have these alternate uniforms that have some sort of cultural significance in the city the team resides. Fountains make perfect sense.
Having alternate uniforms in any form makes sense, as well. Some people might complain that a team should stick with a uniform and make it iconic. I get that idea and it makes sense for some teams; the Yankees are an iconic uniform.
But the Royals have tried different looks in the past and haven’t stuck with one single uniform for decades on end. Their most memorable look is the powder blues and they’ve brought those back to great acclaim. We do *not* need to bring back the black jerseys from the early 2000s.
Teams are going with alternates across every sport. Fans love to see their team in new threads. We can thank (or curse, depending on your view on alternates) the Oregon Ducks football program.
The Ducks (backed by Nike – surprise, Nike backs MLB’s City Connect venture) rolled out new uniform combos every week and a lot of them looked really good. Professional soccer teams have used alternate “kits” for a while. I like the idea in baseball since it’s a long season and it helps keep things fresh through the year.
Of course, Nike and MLB make some extra money on merchandise sales. I’ve never been a “jersey guy” so I don’t even own a regular Royals jersey, let alone the original City Connect and I won’t get a new jersey either. But I get why people wear them. I may even get a t-shirt.
The Royals will wear the new City Connect uniforms for the first time on Friday night, and will wear them for every Friday home game this season.
The Masters
Today is the opening round of The Masters. I haven’t been lucky enough to win the lottery to buy a ticket … yet. I’ll continue to dream my dream.
If this year’s tournament can be half as dramatic as last year’s, we’re in for a treat on Sunday. I still can’t believe Rory McIlroy lost his lead on the opening hole.
Then it was crazy to see him build a 5-stroke lead. And then he completely lost it, got it back, lost it, and won it all in a playoff to complete the career grand slam.
Watching Rory’s emotional reaction after sinking the winning putt and walk through the crowd with joy and relief overtaking him — it’s everything we love as sports fans. Plus it gave us a great meme template.
See that? That’s how I’m going to feel Sunday as The Masters is coming to a close and the Royals finish off a four-game sweep of the White Sox.
