By Adam Gardner | May 4, 2026
Don’t look now, but the Kansas City Royals just put together a winning road trip.
The Royals entered the recent western swing with an abysmal 2-10 record on the road, but they took one from the A’s in Sacramento and then swept the Seattle Mariners over the weekend. I’m not exactly a math wizard, but I believe that improved their road record to 6-12. Not great, but better.
KC’s overall record is now 15-19 and they are 7-3 in their last 10 games. I mentioned in Thursday’s post that nobody in the American League Central is running away with anything, and that continues.
Cleveland and Detroit are tied atop the standings at just 1 game over .500. Chicago has matched the Royals with a 7-3 record in their past 10 games, but the Twins are struggling and have fallen to the bottom.
Guess who the Royals play in their next 10 games? Four at home against Cleveland, three at home against Detroit, then three on the road in Chicago. I’ve talked about how important this stretch of the schedule will be – KC did well on the road portion, but now they need to win these crucial games against division opponents.
Seattle Sweep
It was Kentucky Derby weekend and apparently the Royals decided to honor the memory of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew by pulling off a Seattle Sweep. No word on if any mint juleps were consumed in the clubhouse.
There’s a lot to love from every game of the Seattle series. The offense hung a 4-spot in the first inning of the first game, then came through in the eighth inning to pick up a 7-6 win. Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone both homered in the game – fantastico.
The Royals then snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Saturday’s game. Salvador Perez singled, then Caglianone drove in Lane Thomas – running for Salvy – in the ninth inning to tie the game.
Maikel Garcia brought home Michael Massey with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and Lucas Erceg shut the door in the bottom of the 10th for the win. It’s safe to say Erceg was psyched up after the win.
“Sorry if I’m stuttering, my adrenaline is through the freaking roof right now,” Erceg told Joel Goldberg on the field immediately after the game. Right after using the word freaking, Erceg followed it up with, “and I F***ing love this sh!t.”
Erceg knew he messed up on live TV and apologized instantly, but it was such a funny, raw moment that I hope nobody is mad at him for a slip of the tongue.
What Erceg doesn’t need to apologize for is his recent success on the mound. He’s had six outings since he gave up 3 walks and 1 run on April 20 against Baltimore. In those 6 innings, he has 8 strikeouts to 4 walks (none in 2 innings against Seattle), and just 1 unearned run and 1 hit.
He’s also up to 9 saves, which is tied for second-most in all of the Major Leagues behind San Diego’s Mason Miller, who has 11.
The Royals closed out the sweep with a 4-1 win on Sunday. Kris Bubic pitched 7 strong innings, Isaac Collins had a pair of RBIs, and with Erceg unavailable after pitching two-straight games, Daniel Lynch IV pitched the final 1.1 innings for his first save, striking out three batters.
Pitching is improving
We knew the starting pitching was going to be a strong suit when we entered the season, and they’re doing an OK job so far. The starters are tied for just the 13th-best ERA in baseball at 4.01, but they’ve pitched the six-most innings (188.2) and have the sixth-most strikeouts (185).
The improvement of the bullpen has matched the overall improvement of the team, not coincidentally. It wasn’t long ago the Royals bullpen had a league-worst ERA over 6.00. That group’s ERA is now just 5.03, shaving off more than a run in a little over a week.
I already mentioned Erceg, but Lynch has been a reliable arm out of the pen this season. He had a tough one Friday night, giving up 2 runs to Seattle, but otherwise he’s given up just 1 earned run the rest of the season and has 18 strikeouts in 13.2 innings of work.
Lynch has been abusive of left-handed batters, giving up a .095 batting average, .136 on-base percentage, and .095 slugging percentage. Right-handed batters have fared a little better, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been good, hitting .115/.207/.308.
There’s not a good reason to limit Lynch to just left-handed situations. He’s been plenty good enough against righties and he has earned the opportunity to pitch in important situations.
Matt Strahm has rattled off four-straight scoreless outings and even John Schreiber has been solid lately, allowing just 1 earned run in his past five outings. I’m wary of Schreiber, though, as he doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts. When you can count on a reliever to get strikeouts, you can count on them to come in with runners on base.
But Schreiber relies so much on getting weak contact and only has 5 punchouts in 12.1 innings. If he’s off a bit and leaves a pitch hanging just a bit too much in the zone, it could lead to a big inning.
A big piece going forward could be Luinder Avila, who’s back up with KC. He gave up 1 run against the A’s, but then pitched 2 scoreless innings against Seattle on Saturday. If Avila can find a role as a supporting piece in the bullpen, the Royals suddenly have four or five relievers they can turn to.
We’ll have to see what Carlos Estevez has in the tank when he returns. He reportedly felt good in a live batting practice session on Friday, and was scheduled to pitch another on Sunday. It’ll be interesting to see what he looks like when the Royals send him on a minor league rehab assignment.
Vinnie and Salvy are heating up
One of the best things that can happen for the Royals is the Pasquatch returning to normal. He’s historically been a slow starter and this season was no exception.
But the calendar has flipped to May and Pasquantino has flipped into production mode. In the past seven days he’s slashing .350/.391/.650 for a lovely 1.041 OPS. In that same time frame, he has a double, a triple and a home run.
Vinnie is second on the team with 16 RBIs (Carter Jensen has 17), and is second with 16 walks (Bobby Witt Jr. has 17) despite not hitting well for the first month of the season.
Salvador Perez is also showing signs of life recently, including hustling home and executing a perfect slide to score on a sacrifice fly on Sunday.
Salvy had his own slow start to the season but has been back to form the past two weeks, slashing .268/.293/.722. His 5 home runs are second on the team to Jensen’s 6, and he’s still clearly the heart and soul of the team.
Entire offense coming into shape
It’s a boost to have those two players performing not just to help score runs, but it helps the rest of the roster mentally when they can count on the key guys. Everybody can be comfortable in their own role and they don’t have to press to “make up” for Vinnie and Salvy.
The hitters as a unit are finding their stride after the poor start to the season. The team is tied with Cleveland for the 15th-best OPS in the Major Leagues – exactly in the middle. Breaking that down to the past 15 days, the Royals have the fifth-best OPS which just shows you how much better they’ve been recently compared to early in the season.
“The Athletic” predicted the Royals could have a top-10 offense in baseball this season. That looked pretty silly a couple weeks in, but it’s a long season and the Royals are starting to put things together.
Looking at the past 15 days again, KC is fourth in runs scored, fourth in batting average, sixth in slugging, and seventh in walks. They’re doing just about everything they need to do to score runs.
I say just about because they’ve also been caught stealing 6 times in that time period, second-most in baseball, and they continue to make other outs on the base paths. Michael Massey almost made a crucial error on Saturday and was nearly picked off second base by the catcher but he made a quick decision and hustled into third base instead.
Still, the hitters have improved. This is why I didn’t want to scream for people to lose their jobs. It’s a long season and players will have ups and downs. The Royals happened to have too many players experiencing downs to start the season. Those guys have mostly rebounded and they’re scoring runs again.
I’d love to see the bats continue to succeed in the next 10 games – and the pitching for that matter. It’s not far-fetched to imagine a world where the Royals are in first place in the AL Central when we wake up on May 15.
