By Adam Gardner | Aug. 20, 2026
Don’t look now, but the Kansas City Royals are on a bit of a fun run. They’ve already secured a series win over the Athletics with another game to play, and it’s inspired the tiniest bit of hope in me as a fan.
But that’s kind of crazy, so we’ll talk about reality before jumping into fantasy.
Walk-off winner
Something happened Tuesday night that hasn’t happened much for the Royals this year: they got some breaks.
The first break was they were playing the Athletics. That sounds mean, but the A’s have the worst winning percentage in all of baseball. The Royals even have them cleared by a handful of games.
Then KC caught an umpiring break in the bottom of the ninth inning, trailing the A’s 3-1. Tyler Tolbert had 2 strikes and tried to check his swing on a pitch out of the zone. First base umpire Alex Tosi gave Tolbert the benefit of the doubt, to the ire of the A’s dugout, and Tolbert stayed alive to hit a 2-run single to tie the game.
Isaac Collins then hit a ball well that was caught to bring the Royals to within 1 out of going to extra innings.
But Kansas City employs a gentleman named Bobby Witt Jr. who happens to be one of the best players in the league. Witt can lace line drives to all parts of the field, but break number three came when Witt didn’t get good contact. His looping liner (hey!) got over the shortstop and in front of the left fielder, and Carter Jansen rushed home as the winning run.
It was a fun way to end the night in front of about 12,000 people. No, it’s not like the 2014 Wild Card game between the same two franchises. Yes, it was a meaningless August game between two of the worst teams in the league.
But comebacks are fun … when it’s your team jumping around at the end of the game.
New pitcher picks up first win
The Royals traded Kris Bubic to the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the trade deadline at the beginning of the month, bringing Carlos Duran to KC.
Duran was called up to the big leagues as the corresponding move when the Royals sent Lucas Erceg to the minors – more on him in a bit. Duran had only faced five big league batters before Tuesday night, giving up 3 runs and recording just 1 out for the Athletics in 2025.
Coincidences happen a lot in baseball, so it felt pre-determined that Duran’s next shot in “The Show” would come against those same Athletics. He recorded his first strikeout, gave up 1 hit, and pitched a scoreless frame. He also notched his first big-league win thanks to the Royals comeback effort in the bottom of the ninth.
“I met him like 10 hours ago, but he’s a great personality, really fun to be around,” manager Matt Quatraro said after the game. “You can tell already he’s happy, he’s grateful for the opportunity, and it was a great way to start his career with the Royals.”
Duran had only thrown 3 innings with Omaha after coming over in the trade, but all 3 were scoreless. It should be fun to see how he fares in his opportunity in the KC bullpen the remainder of this season.
Erceg needs a reset
The Royals sent Lucas Erceg to Omaha after another poor performance on Monday night. Erceg entered the contest with KC leading 9-4 in the ninth inning. He departed after giving up a leadoff single, throwing a wild pitch, and walking back-to-back batters.
Steven Cruz came on in relief and got out of the jam by allowing just 1 run (charged to Erceg) and the Royals won. That’s the good news. The bad news is that no matter what role the Royals put Erceg in, he runs into trouble.
Erceg is sporting a 6.23 ERA in 43.1 innings this season. He’s striking out just 6.4/9 innings and has a WHIP (Walks+Hits per inning pitched) of 1.892. If you’re unfamiliar with WHIP, allowing almost 2 runners per inning is bad. When Erceg was on fire in the 2024 postseason run, his WHIP was 0.840, and his K/9 was 11.2.
He’s a completely different pitcher.
What’s crazy is he was good the first month of the season. Something happened in May, and it came after he dropped a couple of swears on live TV and gave us a tremendous reaction face:
His downfall is unrelated to swearing on TV, but I love that image so much I wanted to use it again. He made two more scoreless appearances after that game before things started to turn south for him.
I hope for Erceg’s sake that he can figure something out in Omaha. It’s not even because he’s on my favorite team – he just always looked so defeated once a batter reached base. The season went so poorly that his confidence is completely shot.
Hopefully he can capture the magic he had when he came to KC in 2024. His story with the Royals and in Major League Baseball doesn’t have to be over because of one bad season.
Lynch goes longer
Daniel Lynch IV made his fourth start in his return to the rotation on Tuesday. He’s shown improvement in each start, albeit pretty minor improvements.
Tuesday was easily his best start, though, as he went 4 innings, gave up 1 run and battled back after a long first inning. This was his longest outing in his four starts, and he didn’t allow an inning to blow up on him.
Nothing is guaranteed but this is a nice step in his audition to be considered for a starting role in 2027.
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!
If you don’t know what this subheading is referencing, you really need to check out “Project Hail Mary.” I wish I’d seen it in theater earlier this year, but it’s never too late.
Ryan Gosling does charming Ryan Gosling things, plus we get to meet the wonderful Rocky.
What the Kansas City Royals did Wednesday night would have made Rocky exclaim, “It is beautiful!”
KC found themselves down 5-2 in the eighth inning and promptly turned the game on its head. Maikel Garcia tripled. Vinnie Pasquantino – who had already homered in the game – drove Garcia in with a single. Salvador Perez walked, which is always a fun treat.
Tyler Tolbert walked, Kyle Isbel singled, Isaac Collins hit a sac fly, and then the A’s figured they weren’t going to let Bobby Witt hurt them so they intentionally walked him.
But you can’t just purposefully load the bases in front of John “Barry Bonds” Rave!
Rave roped one into the right field corner to score Tolbert, Isbel and Witt. Garcia brought Rave home with a single to close out the 7-run inning and the Royals closed out the game with a 9-7 win.
Two things:
- This was the kind of offense I hoped for before the season started. Garcia, Pasquantino, Salvy all involved. The Royals scored 9 runs and Witt didn’t even have a hit.
- The A’s are really bad.
The only downside was Jac Caglianone left the game with an ankle injury. Anne Rogers said it’s been bugging him since the Angels series last weekend, but it was aggravated when he hustled to first base Wednesday night.
He played a few more innings after that before ultimately coming out. Hopefully it’s just some pain management and he’s able to return quickly because I really want to see how he can close out his first full season.
Let’s get wild
The Royals have won the first three games of this four-game series with the A’s, and the teams finish it out with an afternoon game today.
After getting swept by the Dodgers, the Royals have won five of their past six games. They are nine games back of the final Wild Card spot.
Is it possible? I guess it depends on what your definition of “possible” is. Short answer: no, the Royals have no chance of fighting past seven other teams for that final Wild Card spot.
But what is sports if not holding constant hope for the unlikely to happen? What if somehow the Royals go nuts and finish their final 34 games with a 27-7 record? That would put them at 81-81 on the season.
The Minnesota Twins currently hold that final Wild Card with a record of 63-65. It’s not insane to think a .500 record could win that position.
Is it likely? No. Is there a universe it could happen? All we need is the right one.
