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Biggp07 · 04-26-2026, 12:28 PM

👑 Friday, August 01 • Game 1 👑

Perez supplies the thunder, Turnbull steadies the middle, and Chad Green slams the door.

Chicago Cubs at Kansas City Royals | Kauffman Stadium
Weather: Clear skies (75 degrees) | Wind: left-to-right at 10 mph | Attendance: 32,172 | First pitch: 7:10 PM CT
________________________________________

Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk)

This morning's monthly ownership review put the big-picture lens back on me: we're entering August with no margin for self-inflicted damage. It had the usual temperature checks — where we're trending, what we're carrying financially, and what we're willing to push across the table if the standings tell us to. Trade deadline dust doesn't magically settle just because the calendar flips. August is where the "win-now" talk gets audited—one lineup card, one bullpen phone call at a time.

After this morning's ownership touchpoint, I went straight into Jason's July development report—everything logged since July 1. The headline for me wasn't a flashy prospect note — it was confirmation that Chad Green is trending the right way after the Pratto deal. The bullpen has been the scab that won't heal, and that's on me as much as anyone: better pitch-count discipline, cleaner hooks, and fewer "let's see what happens" innings. August doesn't wait.

The encouraging part? The report also showed that our Rookie/ACL/DSL coaching changes are showing up on paper and, more importantly, in the way our young guys are starting to carry themselves. That's the payoff of coaching changes, reps, and a system that's starting to speak the same language from the complex up. It's proof that the adjustments we've made are starting to stick.

Notable development movement since July 1st (quick hits):

RP Will Klein, Age 25, Kansas City Royals:
+ Overall rating improves from 40 to 45 / 80. (As RP)
+ Potential rating improves from 2.0 to 2.5 stars. (As RP)

RP Chad Green, Age 34, Kansas City Royals:
+ Overall rating improves from 50 to 55 / 80. (As RP)
+ Potential rating improves from 2.5 to 3.0 stars. (As RP)

C Salvador Perez, Age 35, Kansas City Royals:
- Current defensive rating at Catcher drops from 55 to 50.
- Potential rating drops from 3.0 to 2.5 stars. (As C) - a reminder to manage his workload smartly.

Then I turned the page to tonight. Thirteen games to open August, seven on the road, and opponents that can punch holes in a month fast if we don't play our style. Trade deadline week is over, but the ripple effects are still in our clubhouse — new arms, new roles, and a roster that feels a little sharper around the edges.

So, we keep it simple: play clean, get ahead early, protect our leverage, and test the new bullpen structure in a real moment — not a cushy one. No late-inning detours.

Chicago Cubs Series Snapshot

Post-deadline baseball always feels like the standings get louder. You can hear the urgency. The Cubs came in as a club that can pressure you with contact and athleticism, and they've got enough power sprinkled in to punish lazy execution. Going 56-48 so far this year, the Cubs have a .538 winning percentage. They are in 3rd place in the NL Central Division, 4.5 games behind the leader. The Cubs are playing well at the moment, four straight wins and a lineup that can pressure you all night. Offensively, they've been among the better NL groups in runs and average, and their rotation has kept them in games. The bullpen is solid, too, which meant we couldn't assume anything late.

For us, this was the first night of August—and I wanted it to look like a team serious about turning the page. Kauffman had that "new month" energy: a crowd ready to exhale after the deadline chaos, and a dugout that needed to re-center on the next pitch instead of the last trade call.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:

RHP S. Turnbull (10-6, 4.21 ERA) vs RHP C. Horton (3-12, 6.38 ERA)
LHP J. Montgomery (12-6, 4.80 ERA) vs LHP C. Povich (7-5, 3.52 ERA)
RHP Z. Eflin (11-4, 2.41 ERA) vs LHP A. Nardi (7-5, 4.24 ERA)

The top 5 players on their team are:

1. SP Justin Steele (Age: 30, Overall: 70, Potential: 4.0)
2. SP Shota Imanaga (31, 65, 4.0)
3. C Moises Ballesteros (21, 65, 3.5)
4. CF Pete Crow-Armstrong (23, 60, 3.5)
5. SP Cade Horton (23, 60, 4.0)

Series Matchup Board — Game 1

• RHP Spencer Turnbull (KC) vs RHP Cade Horton (CHC)

Turnbull's assignment was to keep the ball on the edges and stay stubborn in the zone — the Cubs will take what you gift them. Horton's got the kind of arm that can shorten a game if you let him get comfortable, so our plan was to make him work, stack quality at-bats early, and force their bullpen into innings they didn't want.
________________________________________

Game Day Log — Royals vs. Cubs (Game 1)

Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View)

1st (Top): Cubs strike first, 1–0.
Hoerner sparked the inning and then turned a steal attempt into trouble when the throw got away (E2), letting him advance and eventually score on a fly ball. It wasn't loud baseball — it was messy baseball, and it put us behind before we even got settled.

4th (Bottom): Captain answers — Royals take the lead, 2–1.
Mark Payton set the table, and Salvador Perez did what Salvador Perez does: a 2-run homer that flipped the game and flipped the dugout. That swing felt like a reset button — the kind that reminds everybody we can still land the punch when we need it.

5th: Trading blows, then we reclaim momentum (KC leads 4–2).
Crow-Armstrong tied it with a solo shot in the top half — a quick reminder that "one-run" margins don't stay quiet for long. Bottom half, Michael Massey answered with a solo homer of his own. Then we manufactured another run: Loftin and Isbel created traffic, and Pasquantino's ground ball brought one home to push us to 4–2.

6th (Bottom): Pressure inning, 5–2.
Payton doubled, Massey got the intentional pass, Loftin punched a single, and then Isbel drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run. Not pretty — but productive. That's the stuff that wins August games: taking what the inning gives you.

7th: Bridge work.
Paulino handled the lane we needed him to handle — the quiet kind of inning that keeps the game from tilting.

8th–9th: Chad Green gets his first save as a Royal (KC wins 5–3).
This is where I deliberately put the test on the table. Green took the last two innings. The ninth got tight — a triple and a single brought in a run and made it uncomfortable — but he found the finish line. Not flawless, but he closed the door, and that matters.
________________________________________

Final

Royals 5, Cubs 3
Royals (9 H, 1 E) | Cubs (8 H, 0 E)

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We did the most important thing to start August: we played from in front and didn't blink when the finish got noisy. Turnbull gave us six competitive innings, the offense answered immediately after Chicago landed the first punch, and the back end—Paulino to Green—did the job.

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Views: 171
Size: 47.0 KB

Code:

Kansas City Pitching Scoreline
Pitcher             Dec            IP    H    R   ER   BB    K   HR    PI    ERA
Turnbull, S.       W (11-6)       6.0    6    2    2    3    3    1    87   4.15
Paulino, A.        H (1)          1.0    0    0    0    1    0    0    18   3.93
Green, C.          SV (1)         2.0    2    1    1    0    4    0    33   4.50

________________________________________

Front Office Note / Takeaways

This was the blueprint we've been chasing since the deadline week started: absorb early noise, create separation, then close with intent.

• Turnbull gave us what we needed: 6 innings of stability after a messy first — exactly the tone-setter we needed to start the month.

• Perez's 2-run homer was the hinge swing; Massey's answer in the 5th kept the game on our terms.

• We manufactured offense (the Pasquantino RBI grounder, the Isbel bases-loaded walk). That's winning baseball when the long ball isn't a parade.

• Bullpen roles, first real test: Paulino bridged it, and Chad Green took the finishing role for two innings. He gave me some anxiety in the ninth, but I wanted to see if he could stare down the moment. He did. A deadline acquisition turns into a same-night payoff. First save as a Royal, the first step in defining August. That's how you keep a club from drifting—stack clean nights, stack honest decisions, and don't let the bullpen dictate your mood.

• Development report reinforces the bigger plan: the lower minors are trending up, and the big-league roster is starting to reflect a system that's finally aligned.

Around the League

Major League Game Highlights:

• Detroit's Tarik Skubal was surgical in a shutout win over Minnesota — scattered three hits and piled up strikeouts without issuing a walk.
• Miami's Jacob Berry had one of those "everything finds grass" nights: five hits, a cycle, and a pile of RBIs in a road win at Milwaukee.

Minor League Game Highlights:

• In the DSL, Sung-woo Ahn turned the Royals' complex into his personal batting cage — a five-hit day that powered a lopsided win.

Awards (July):

• Tampa Bay's Carson Williams took AL Batter of the Month after a monster July.

• Shohei Ohtani claimed NL Batter of the Month with a thunderous run of power production.

• Pitcher of the Month honors went to Skubal (AL) and Andrew Abbott (NL).

• Toronto's Connor Norby earned AL Rookie of the Month; Cincinnati's Edwin Arroyo took the NL side.

• A couple of minor league award notes stood out — including a familiar name we've crossed paths with this year, finding his rhythm elsewhere.
________________________________________
👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑

Kansas City Royals | Regular Season 2025 - Game 105

(OOTP25 Royals Journey — GM/Manager's Dual Log)

04-26-2026, 12:28 PM	#143
Biggp07 Major Leagues Join Date: Sep 2024 Posts: 400	⚾ August 2025 — Game 105: August Opens with a Clean Close 👑 Friday, August 01 • Game 1 👑 Perez supplies the thunder, Turnbull steadies the middle, and Chad Green slams the door. Chicago Cubs at Kansas City Royals \| Kauffman Stadium Weather: Clear skies (75 degrees) \| Wind: left-to-right at 10 mph \| Attendance: 32,172 \| First pitch: 7:10 PM CT ________________________________________ Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk) This morning's monthly ownership review put the big-picture lens back on me: we're entering August with no margin for self-inflicted damage. It had the usual temperature checks — where we're trending, what we're carrying financially, and what we're willing to push across the table if the standings tell us to. Trade deadline dust doesn't magically settle just because the calendar flips. August is where the "win-now" talk gets audited—one lineup card, one bullpen phone call at a time. After this morning's ownership touchpoint, I went straight into Jason's July development report—everything logged since July 1. The headline for me wasn't a flashy prospect note — it was confirmation that *Chad Green is trending the right way* after the Pratto deal. The bullpen has been the scab that won't heal, and that's on me as much as anyone: *better pitch-count discipline, cleaner hooks, and fewer "let's see what happens" innings.* August doesn't wait. The encouraging part? The report also showed that our Rookie/ACL/DSL coaching changes are showing up on paper and, more importantly, in the way our young guys are starting to carry themselves. That's the payoff of coaching changes, reps, and a system that's starting to speak the same language from the complex up. It's proof that the adjustments we've made are starting to stick. Notable development movement since July 1st (quick hits): RP Will Klein, Age 25, Kansas City Royals: + Overall rating improves from 40 to 45 / 80. (As RP) + Potential rating improves from 2.0 to 2.5 stars. (As RP) RP Chad Green, Age 34, Kansas City Royals: + Overall rating improves from 50 to 55 / 80. (As RP) + Potential rating improves from 2.5 to 3.0 stars. (As RP) C Salvador Perez, Age 35, Kansas City Royals: - Current defensive rating at Catcher drops from 55 to 50. - Potential rating drops from 3.0 to 2.5 stars. (As C) - *a reminder to manage his workload smartly. Then I turned the page to tonight. Thirteen games to open August, seven on the road, and opponents that can punch holes in a month fast if we don't play our style. Trade deadline week is over, but the ripple effects are still in our clubhouse — new arms, new roles, and a roster that feels a little sharper around the edges. So, we keep it simple: play clean, get ahead early, protect our leverage, and test the new bullpen structure in a real moment* — not a cushy one. No late-inning detours. Chicago Cubs Series Snapshot Post-deadline baseball always feels like the standings get louder. You can hear the urgency. The Cubs came in as a club that can pressure you with contact and athleticism, and they've got enough power sprinkled in to punish lazy execution. Going 56-48 so far this year, the Cubs have a .538 winning percentage. They are in 3rd place in the NL Central Division, 4.5 games behind the leader. The Cubs are playing well at the moment, *four straight wins* and a lineup that can pressure you all night. Offensively, they've been among the better NL groups in runs and average, and their rotation has kept them in games. The bullpen is solid, too, which meant we couldn't assume anything late. For us, this was the first night of August—and I wanted it to look like a team serious about turning the page. Kauffman had that "new month" energy: a crowd ready to exhale after the deadline chaos, and a dugout that needed to re-center on the next pitch instead of the last trade call. Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first: RHP S. Turnbull (10-6, 4.21 ERA) vs RHP C. Horton (3-12, 6.38 ERA) LHP J. Montgomery (12-6, 4.80 ERA) vs LHP C. Povich (7-5, 3.52 ERA) RHP Z. Eflin (11-4, 2.41 ERA) vs LHP A. Nardi (7-5, 4.24 ERA) The top 5 players on their team are: 1. SP Justin Steele (Age: 30, Overall: 70, Potential: 4.0) 2. SP Shota Imanaga (31, 65, 4.0) 3. C Moises Ballesteros (21, 65, 3.5) 4. CF Pete Crow-Armstrong (23, 60, 3.5) 5. SP Cade Horton (23, 60, 4.0) Series Matchup Board — Game 1 • RHP Spencer Turnbull (KC) vs RHP Cade Horton (CHC) Turnbull's assignment was to keep the ball on the edges and stay stubborn in the zone — the Cubs will take what you gift them. Horton's got the kind of arm that can shorten a game if you let him get comfortable, so our plan was to make him work, stack quality at-bats early, and force their bullpen into innings they didn't want. ________________________________________ Game Day Log — Royals vs. Cubs (Game 1) Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View) 1st (Top): Cubs strike first, 1–0. Hoerner sparked the inning and then turned a steal attempt into trouble when the throw got away (E2), letting him advance and eventually score on a fly ball. It wasn't loud baseball — it was *messy baseball, and it put us behind before we even got settled. 4th (Bottom): Captain answers — Royals take the lead, 2–1.* Mark Payton set the table, and Salvador Perez did what Salvador Perez does: a 2-run homer that flipped the game and flipped the dugout. That swing felt like a reset button — the kind that reminds everybody we can still land the punch when we need it. 5th: Trading blows, then we reclaim momentum (KC leads 4–2). Crow-Armstrong tied it with a solo shot in the top half — a quick reminder that "one-run" margins don't stay quiet for long. Bottom half, Michael Massey answered with a solo homer of his own. Then we manufactured another run: Loftin and Isbel created traffic, and Pasquantino's ground ball brought one home to push us to 4–2. 6th (Bottom): Pressure inning, 5–2. Payton doubled, Massey got the intentional pass, Loftin punched a single, and then Isbel drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run. Not pretty — but productive. That's the stuff that wins August games: taking what the inning gives you. 7th: Bridge work. Paulino handled the lane we needed him to handle — the quiet kind of inning that keeps the game from tilting. 8th–9th: Chad Green gets his first save as a Royal (KC wins 5–3). This is where I deliberately put the test on the table. Green took the last two innings. The ninth got tight — a triple and a single brought in a run and made it uncomfortable — but he found the finish line. Not flawless, but he closed the door, and that matters. ________________________________________ Final Royals 5, Cubs 3 Royals (9 H, 1 E) \| Cubs (8 H, 0 E) We did the most important thing to start August: *we played from in front and didn't blink when the finish got noisy. Turnbull* gave us six competitive innings, the offense answered immediately after Chicago landed the first punch, and the back end—Paulino to Green—did the job. Code: Kansas City Pitching Scoreline Pitcher Dec IP H R ER BB K HR PI ERA Turnbull, S. W (11-6) 6.0 6 2 2 3 3 1 87 4.15 Paulino, A. H (1) 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 0 18 3.93 Green, C. SV (1) 2.0 2 1 1 0 4 0 33 4.50 ________________________________________ Front Office Note / Takeaways This was the blueprint we've been chasing since the deadline week started: *absorb early noise, create separation, then close with intent. • Turnbull gave us what we needed:* 6 innings of stability after a messy first — exactly the tone-setter we needed to start the month. • Perez's 2-run homer was the hinge swing; Massey's answer in the 5th kept the game on our terms. • We manufactured offense (the Pasquantino RBI grounder, the Isbel bases-loaded walk). That's winning baseball when the long ball isn't a parade. • Bullpen roles, first real test: Paulino bridged it, and Chad Green took the finishing role for two innings. He gave me some anxiety in the ninth, but I wanted to see if he could stare down the moment. He did. A deadline acquisition turns into a same-night payoff. First save as a Royal, the first step in defining August. That's how you keep a club from drifting—stack clean nights, stack honest decisions, and don't let the bullpen dictate your mood. • Development report reinforces the bigger plan: the *lower minors are trending up, and the big-league roster is starting to reflect a system that's finally aligned. Around the League* Major League Game Highlights: • Detroit's Tarik Skubal was surgical in a shutout win over Minnesota — scattered three hits and piled up strikeouts without issuing a walk. • Miami's Jacob Berry had one of those "everything finds grass" nights: five hits, a cycle, and a pile of RBIs in a road win at Milwaukee. Minor League Game Highlights: • In the DSL, Sung-woo Ahn turned the Royals' complex into his personal batting cage — a five-hit day that powered a lopsided win. Awards (July): • Tampa Bay's Carson Williams took AL Batter of the Month after a monster July. • Shohei Ohtani claimed NL Batter of the Month with a thunderous run of power production. • Pitcher of the Month honors went to Skubal (AL) and Andrew Abbott (NL). • Toronto's Connor Norby earned AL Rookie of the Month; Cincinnati's Edwin Arroyo took the NL side. • A couple of minor league award notes stood out — including a familiar name we've crossed paths with this year, finding his rhythm elsewhere. ________________________________________ 👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑 Kansas City Royals \| Regular Season 2025 - Game 105 (OOTP25 Royals Journey — GM/Manager's Dual Log)