|
Major Leagues
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 357
|
Kansas City at Atlanta (03/27 -- 03/29)
SERIES RECAP: BRAVES
Royals begin season in 0-2 hole; finale rained out
By 3BPlay
03/30/2026
03/27 -- Braves' six bombs sink the Royals in opener: It wasn't the season opener that Matt Quatraro and the Royals envisioned. At all.
Led by reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin, the Braves pounded out a half-dozen homeruns against Royals pitching, doubling up the visitors by an 8-4 score. In fact, eight of the ten Braves hits went for extra bases. With a pretty stiff breeze gusting out to center and left-center for most of the game, even seemingly routine fly balls were leaving the yard. Except, the Royals could only muster to get one out of the stadium.
Even though the Royals put up a tally in the first, the lead didn't last long. Jurickson Profar set the tone early for Atlanta's onslaught with a solo homerun on Cole Ragans' very first pitch of the 2026 season. Kansas City would re-gain the lead in the third on a Bobby Witt sac fly, while Ragans would go on to settle in and not allow any more runs over the next nine outs after Profar's homer. Matt Olson had other ideas in the fourth, hitting a solo shot to lead off the fourth. Baldwin then would later hit a three-run shot that widened the gap.
Ragans finished the fourth inning, but was replaced by Noah Cameron to begin the fifth. Working in relief for the first time as a big leaguer, it didn't go well for him either as he was tagged for a pair of solo homeruns in his two innings of work, one each by Olson and Baldwin. With an off day between the first and second games of next week's home series with the Twins, Cameron has been made available in the short-term as a third lefty out of the bullpen, with his initial start pushed back until April 5th against the Brewers.
"At the time, it was a two-run game," said manager Matt Quatraro of his decision to put Cameron in. "The idea was to try and keep it close, and see if we could get (Spencer) Strider out of the game and into their bullpen, but it didn't work out quite that way."
Carter Jensen cut the lead to two in that half-inning, hitting a solo shot off Strider for the Royals' first homerun of 2026. Serving as the DH, he went 1-for-3 with the homerun and a walk. Jac Caglianone also had a hard-hit double, going 1-for-3 before being lifted for pinch-hitter Nick Loftin in the eighth.
The Royals were also beset by baserunning mistakes. Maikel Garcia got a poor jump on a stolen base attempt in the first and was thrown out by Baldwin at second, while Isaac Collins tried to stretch a single into a double in the third. With lead runner Kyle Isbel going to third, right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr attempted to get him at third, but Olson, a multiple-time Gold Glove winner, cut the throw off and nailed Collins at second on a close play that was reviewed and ultimately overturned by the replay umpire.
"I think in the end, I probably wouldn't have tried for second," Quatraro said of Collins' decision to try for two on the play. "We tell our guys to take the extra base when you can, but these guys play team defense as good as anybody in the league. Olson, Gold Glove. Acuna has a laser for an arm. THey just picked up (Mauricio) Dubon over the offseason who can really go get the ball no matter where they put him. Without that play, it's first and third, no outs, and who knows how the rest of that inning goes."
Atlanta's six homeruns are the most they've hit since August 12, 2023, when they also hit six homeruns against the Mets. They've also hit seven once, back on May 21st, 2021 at Truist Park, and the team record of eight on May 28th, 2006 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
"I don't know what the odds are exactly, but I'd say the team that hits six homeruns in the game is going to win 99% of the time, Especially when you hit just one, and the other scoring opportunities, you really had to scratch them out," Quatraro went on to say.
Code:
KC at ATL | 3/27/2026 | Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City (0-1) 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 4 8 1
Atlanta (1-0) 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 1 X 8 10 0
W: Spencer Strider (1-0) L: Cole Ragans (0-1) S: None
Code:
KC HR: Carter Jensen (1)
ATL HR: Jurickson Profar (1), Drake Baldwin 2 (2), Matt Olson 2 (2),
Austin Riley (1)
Code:
March 25th, 2026
NYY 8, SF 3 |
March 26th, 2026
MIN 2, BAL 3 | COL 9, MIA 7 | TEX 6, PHI 4 | ATH 5, TOR 10
PIT 5, NYM 3 | TB 4, STL 2 | LAA 6, HOU 4 | CHW 2, MIL 13
CLE 0, SEA 7 | BOS 4, CIN 6 | DET 0, SD 3 | WSH 6, CHC 7 (10)
ARI 11, LAD 6
March 27th, 2026
LAA 3, HOU 2 | DET 9, SD 2 | CLE 2, SEA 4 | ARI 2, LAD 10
KC 4, ATL 8 | NYY 1, SF 4 |
03/28 -- Braves edge K.C. in walk-off defeat: Kansas City finds themselves in an early 0-2 hole, dropping a 5-4 walk-off decision to the Braves. Austin Riley's two-out single in the ninth against Lucas Erceg poked through the Gold Glove-winning left side of the Royals' infield and scored former Royal Mike Yastrzemski from second base, as Isaac Collins' throw would have likely got him at the plate had it not been off to the first base side of home.
"It was a good throw, but we needed a great one on that play," manager Matt Quatraro mused after the game. "If Carter (Jensen) didn't have to cross his body to bring it in and back across to make the tag, that's an out most certainly. But as it is, we just didn't execute in certain spots, both on defense and at the plate."
It's only two games, but the offense has seemingly picked up where it left off in 2025, leaving gobs of runners on base in key spots and being forced to eke out runs one at a time seemingly. Through the first two games, they've left eighteen men on base, with eleven of them coming on Saturday.
Jensen homered for the second straight game, a two-run homerun in the seventh off Chris Sale with no one out that chased the veteran lefty from the game; and even when they brought in Aaron Bummer in his place, the Royals continued to put the pressure on with no one out by loading the bases with two singles sandwiched around a hit batter.
But a line drive out by Maikel Garcia, followed by another hit batter as Bummer forced in a run by hitting Vinnie Pasquantino, who would later tie the game again in the late innings. With the bases loaded and still just one out, both Salvador Perez and Lane Thomas flew out to left, ending the inning with just three runs, but the potential for a lot more.
Pasquantino's two-out double put him in position to score before Perez was intentionally walked to bring up Thomas, who struck out against Raisel Iglesias to strand pinch-runner Drew Waters at second.
"Looking back, that's where we lost it," Thomas, who left three runners in scoring position, lamented after the game. "Just didn't get a good swing on the fly out, and missed a real golden chance to break the game open."
Kris Bubic got the ball against Sale for the Royals, and it wasn't a pretty outing. Yes, he only allowed three earned runs in five innings, but was tagged for eight hits and two walks while striking out five. Quatraro called his performance 'gutsy', but said there were certainly some positive things to take away as well.
"He threw strikes pretty consistently," he said. "After each inning, he noted one or two pitches that were hit hard where he didn't get quite the movement on it he wanted, which led to him getting hit pretty hard at times, but he did enough to keep us in it. We just didn't come through in late-game situations offensively."
Code:
KC at ATL | 3/28/2026 | Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Kansas City (0-2) 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 4 10 1
Atlanta (2-0) 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 1 5 14 0
W: Raisel Iglesias (1-0) L: Lucas Erceg (0-1) S: None
Code:
KC HR: Carter Jensen (2)
ATL HR: None
Code:
March 28th, 2026
MIN 3, BAL 0 | LAA 1, HOU 4 | ATH 7, TOR 3 | WSH 7, CHC 6 (11)
KC 4, ATL 5 | COL 6, MIA 9 | TEX 3, PHI 6 | PIT 4, NYM 12
CLE 3, SEA 4 | CHW 5, MIL 9 | TB 6, STL 7 | BOS 8, CIN 11
ARI 2, LAD 1 | DET 9, SD 1 | NYY 6, SF 3 |
03/29 -- Royals rained out; game to be made up April 27th: The afternoon contest between the Braves and Royals to cap off the series was postponed to April 27th due to the weather, as heavy rains moved into the region yesterday morning and lasted throughout the afternoon. Instead, the Royals boarded an earlier charter flight out of Atlanta back to Kansas City as they'll play their home opener today with the Twins coming in for three games over the next four days.
"We were told there was pretty much no way that the game was going to be played," manager Matt Quatraro noted in his morning press conference over Zoom from Kauffman Stadium. "They had the tarps out and on the field just prior to the rain starting, but it was supposed to rain all day, so the league called both sides and said that they were going to start looking for dates on the calendar to come back and get this game made up. So from there, we were able to get out before the heavy stuff really hit, so we appreciate that."
Instead, the Royals remain at 0-2 on the season, and will look to right the ship at home after facing a Braves team that while they are still missing a few key members of their pitching staff, they have players like Ronald Acuna Jr and Jurickson Profar back in the lineup after missing at least half the season for various reasons, and added players such as Mauricio Dubon over the offseason.
"That's a team that played last season at probably sixty to seventy-five strength at any given time," he said when asked about playing the Braves. "They still have a few guys out at this point, mainly a few pitchers and (catcher Sean) Murphy, but their lineup is back and nearly fully healthy, and they're going to be a real problem for anyone they're going to face this year."
Seth Lugo, who was scheduled to start yesterday afternoon, will get the ball for tonight's home opener against righty Zebby Matthews of Minnesota. It would have been Michael Wacha tonight had yesterday's game been played, but due to the schedule change, the starter for Wednesday night's game has not yet been announced.
"The additional off day does really throw a wrench in our plans, but it could also open up some more strategic opportunities," Quatraro went on to say. "As you all know, Noah Cameron is a guy who can still go out of the bullpen in this series, and perhaps we can employ Wacha as a swing-type arm if things go sideways. I think a lot of it depends on how tonight's game goes."
Code:
KC at ATL | 3/29/2026 | Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
GAME POSTPONED UNTIL APRIL 27TH (WEATHER)
Code:
March 29th, 2026
MIN 1, BAL 3 | LAA 3, HOU 6 | ATH 8, TOR 1 | WSH 3, CHC 8
COL 9, MIA 6 | TEX 2, PHI 4 | PIT 4, NYM 5 | CLE 3, SEA 2
CHW 5, MIL 2 | TB 2, STL 4 | BOS 5, CIN 4 | KC @ ATL PPD
|