Royals Break Insane 56-Game Drought In Much-Needed Win Over Pirates
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If you've attended a Kansas City Royals home game in the last 10 months, there's a very solid chance you left the ballpark disappointed in the team's power display.
Unless, that is, you happened to stumble into Kauffman Stadium on Monday night.
The Royals picked up a much-needed 9-3 win in their series opener against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates. Star sluggers Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvador Perez all homered, which also snapped a ludicrous streak the Royals had allowed to fester.
According to MLB.com's Anne Rogers, the Royals hit multiple home runs at Kauffman for the first time since Aug. 24, 2024, snapping a streak of 56 games. It was the third-longest such streak in franchise history and the longest since 1982.
“Hitting homers here at Kauffman is great,” Witt said, in the understatement of the century (per Rogers).
Frankly, it's amazing that the Royals are somehow just 21-24 at home considering that sort of offensive futility. Home runs aren't everything, but they're certainly an easy way to win games, and the Royals have been stripping themselves of that option.
Ironically enough, the Royals' 67 team home runs put them ahead of only the opposing Pirates for the lowest mark in Major League Baseball this season.
The Royals now have to start stacking series wins, as the trade deadline approaches at the end of the month. At 44-48, they're five games out of a potential Wild Card spot in the American League, and they'd also have to leapfrog four teams to get there.
Hitting more long balls is a great place to start. And in particular, if the three players that hit them on Monday can keep doing so, they'll be much better off moving forward.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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