ATLANTA -- The Royals waited an extra day and all of the day to finally get their Opening Day game started on Friday night in Atlanta, and the anticipation for the 2026 season was the hardest part of it all.
But the good vibes did not last very long once the Royals took the field at Truist Park, dropping Game 1 of the season, 6-0, to the Braves. The Royals haven’t won an Opening Day matchup since 2022 against Cleveland, and Friday marked their seventh consecutive Opening Day loss on the road.
Of course, one game -- and certainly not the first game -- does not define the Royals’ season. But man, it would have been nice to grab the first one, especially to start a season with high expectations as a contending team.
“Our expectations for ourselves are higher than anyone’s,” shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who notched two hits, said prior to the game. “So we’ve got to go out there and prove ourselves right. Go out there and play the game that we’ve played since we were little. And just know that we’re some dudes out there.”
The Royals feel confident in the roster they’ve built. There were flashes of why throughout the season opener, but it also showed why there’s still work to be done.
“Obviously didn’t go our way,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “That wasn’t how we would have drawn it up. They pitched well. You knew it was going to be tough to score on [Chris] Sale. We had some opportunities early that we didn’t capitalize on, and they hit the long ball. And that was really the story of the game.”
Starter Cole Ragans allowed four runs on six hits and four walks in four laborious innings, needing 90 pitches to get through his first start of the season and never throwing fewer than 20 pitches in each of his frames. The Royals lefty needed three pitches to record two outs in the bottom of the first inning, but his heel caught on the mound when he was facing Ozzie Albies, causing Ragans to stumble. Two pitches later, Albies hit a hanging changeup for a home run. Ragans needed 22 pitches to get through the first inning.
“I’m not going to blame it on [the stumble],” Ragans said. “I just didn’t command the baseball.”
Another solo homer in the third added to the Braves’ lead. Ragans walked Jonah Heim in the fourth and allowed a two-run homer to Michael Harris II. The walk is what hurt, especially when it came four pitches after catcher Salvador Perez had helped Ragans in the count by getting a ball overturned to a strike in the Royals’ first ABS challenge in franchise history. Perez was 3-for-3 in ABS challenges Friday night, all low pitches turned into strikes.
“I love it,” Ragans said. “That changes the count. There are going to be situations where those get overturned where that’s a big situation in the game. Obviously, I should have gone after the guy a little more after getting that pitch.”
Perez added: “I got a pretty good idea -- side to side is a little hard, but up and down, yeah, I have a pretty good idea. I thought they were strikes, and I took my chance.”
The Royals’ offense, meanwhile, tried to make Sale work and actually took some good at-bats against the veteran left-hander, with a 21% chase rate and whiffing just nine times on 38 swings. But they saw no results from it and recorded just five hits.
Maikel Garcia laced a two-strike single to open the game, but Witt grounded into a hard-hit double play on the first pitch he saw. The Royals loaded the bases with one out in the second, but Isaac Collins grounded into a double play. They drew two more walks in the third, but Braves left fielder Eli White made an all-out grab on Perez’s sinking liner, the first of a few defensive gems by Braves fielders.
That liner came off Perez’s bat at 93.8 mph. His next flyout in the sixth -- with Witt on first base -- looked like a bloop single in the making until Ronald Acuña Jr. made a tumbling shoestring catch. That one came off Perez’s bat at 72.7 mph.
“I think [the first one] had a chance,” Perez said. “And I hit the other one soft, and they caught it, too. So hard, soft -- it didn’t matter.”
He continued later: “On the Top 10 [plays] on ESPN, they’re going to have at least four plays. They made some pretty good plays. We hit the ball hard.
“I don’t think it’s going to be like that every time.”
Of course, that’s what makes baseball great. One game is one game. It could flip soon, and the Royals have another chance at a win on Saturday night. No waiting around this time.