Royals stress taking it day by day despite 'sense of urgency'

KANSAS CITY -- Excitement surrounds the Royals in 2024 after a busy offseason, and the sellout crowd of 38,775 at Kauffman Stadium was fired up Thursday. Players felt it from the start of the pregame ceremony and Opening Day introductions.

They felt the disappointment, too, after their 4-1 Opening Day loss to the Twins.

“The fans were electric,” shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. said. “We didn’t pull off the win for them, but it gives you a sense of urgency because we want to get back to winning. Even just the eruption of the crowd, it’s fun to see that and be a part of that. Definitely want to get back to that.”

And now the challenge remains not letting this start look like the one from 2023 -- a season the Royals are trying hard to move on from and forget. Kansas City went 7-22 over the first month of last season, digging itself into a hole it wasn't able to emerge from during the summer.

This year, the Royals are facing a gauntlet first-month schedule, with 25 of their first 38 games against ‘23 playoff teams (Minnesota for three, Baltimore for six, Houston for three, Toronto for seven, Texas for three and Milwaukee for three).

“Going into the year, there’s excitement, there’s optimism, then there’s the reality of, ‘We’ve got to get through 162 games,’” general manager J.J. Picollo said Thursday. “A lot of things have to go right. Players have to play better than we did last year, mature as players. The free agents we signed need to do what they’ve done over the course of their careers, and we’ve got to stay healthy. We know that we’re a long way off from talking about October baseball.

“The games in April matter as much as they do in September. And we need to play well in April. We have a tough schedule, so we’ve got a challenge right out of the gate. But I’m glad there’s optimism and excitement in the city.”

Opening Day starter and emerging ace Cole Ragans is a major reason for that excitement, and he looked the part Thursday, allowing two runs in six innings and earning a new Royals Opening Day record with nine strikeouts. That surpassed the previous record of eight held by Danny Duffy (2017) and Wally Bunker (1970).

All nine of those strikeouts came on swings and misses, and Ragans registered 19 whiffs on 51 swings (37%) on Thursday.

“I thought we had a pretty good mix with everything,” Ragans said. “[Salvador Perez] did great back there. I felt from pitch one, we had a really good mix. It was just trying to keep guys off balance. … Opening Day is a special day, I think for everyone. But like I’ve said all throughout spring, our ultimate goal is to win. That’s the biggest thing.”

Ragans dealt. Minnesota ace Pablo López was just better.

López held the Royals to one run on four hits over seven innings, tallying seven strikeouts and walking none. The lone run came on a leadoff home run from Maikel Garcia.

“That’s a dream,” Garcia said. “I remember when I was young and watched [Opening Day] on TV. Now, I’m a part of the team.”

Garcia tried to hit a few more out of the park but came up short of the center field fence, and the rest of the lineup wasn’t able to follow his lead. The Royals left four on base and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Improving the situational hitting is crucial this year; in 2023, the Royals’ .246 average with runners in scoring position ranked 23rd in baseball, and their 83 wRC+ ranked 29th.

“You’re not going to win a ton of games scoring one run,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “You’re going to play against good pitching like that, you’re going to have to figure out a way to scratch a couple across.”

No one panics about one game with 161 more on the schedule. The focus, Quatraro says and his players echo, is on one day at a time and not on the season, the month or even the series.

So as the Opening Day excitement faded by late Thursday evening, the focus turned to Saturday.

“I think you just focus on that, and that’s when all the worry and everything goes away,” Witt said. “That’s what we’re still continuing to do. You look at last year, it was hard to go day by day when you’re losing so many games. So now, we’ve got to focus on the process. … Take those losses and improve from it.”