Royals blow three-run lead to Guardians in 7-4 Opening Day loss

The Kansas City Royals lost Opening Day 2025 to the Cleveland Guardians 7-4 in front of a sellout crowd at Kauffman Stadium. Vinnie Pasquantino provided the power via a three-run home run in the third inning and the Royals scrounged back a run in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome iffy defense and a catastrophic baserunning performance.

Cole Ragans took the mound for the Royals and looked sharp but amped up. The first inning involved a pair of bloops and a walk (hey, this is the Guardians we’re talking about), but Ragans managed to squirm out without any runs scoring, which was nice.

The Royals’ big inning happened in the third. Kyle Isbel smacked a slicing line drive to left-center field that just barely escaped the glove of a diving Steven Kwan. Bobby Witt Jr. then got a nice infield single. Immediately afterward, Pasquantino hammered a ball to right field for his first home run of the year—and the Royals’ first points.

In the bottom of the inning, Carlos Santana and Bo Naylor collided after a popup, a scary moment. But neither Santana or Naylor was hurt, and both stayed in the game.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Guardians started to strike back. Kyle Manzardo, the hero of the game for Cleveland, “tripled” to right field—it was a double, but Hunter Renfroe misplayed it. Jhonkensy Noel scored Manzardo on a sac fly. They got another run in the fifth inning when Jose Ramirez scored Gabriel Arias on a sac fly. And in the sixth inning, Manzardo crushed a two-run home run.

And that was when the bats for the Royals went cold. Nobody got a hit from Pasquantino’s homer in the third to the ninth inning. The Royals came back from being down 4-3 in the ninth inning, scoring a run after Pasquantino doubled and Salvador Perez singled (to be hilariously pinch ran for by Freddy Fermin). That sent the game to extras tied 4-4, and wouldn’t you know it but Manzardo doubled (along with Kwan) in the 10th to score a trio of Guardians and send the score to its final 7-4 figure.

You might have noticed that I skipped the eighth inning. That was when the Royals had the best chance to put the game away. They, uh, did not do so. The inning began with a Cavan Biggio walk. Dairon Blanco replaced Biggio on the basepaths and immediately stole second base. So far, so good. Then, Kyle Isbel reached on a fielder’s choice, with runners at the corners and no outs. Big deal.

Jonathan India then hit a routine ground ball to the left side of the infield. Blanco got caught into a rundown trying to get home. The Guardians tagged him out. Isbel then got caught in a rundown trying to take third base. The Guardians tagged him out. That’s right—a rundown double-play.

Look: to win games, you can’t do stupid stuff too often. That was a play out of the 2023 Royals playbook, and it was the thing I’ll remember about this game, unfortunately.

Performance to remember

Vinnie Pasquantino has gone through it since August last year. He broke his thumb, couldn’t play for a month, played hobbled in the playoffs, and then tweaked his hamstring a week before the first game of this season. But he worked his way back and hit a pair of extra base hits. That’s exactly what Pasquantino needs to do, and I imagine it felt so good.

Performance to forget

Hunter Renfroe was awful, terrible, bad today. He was a zero on offense, not getting on base a single time. Look, that happens sometimes, you know?

But unfortunately for Renfroe he was also a disaster at defense. Renfroe let a ball bounce around in the right field corner, a mistake which turned a Manzardo double into a triple (and then a run). He had two opportunities to throw a runner out at home plate and didn’t cash in on either of them. Then, in the 10th inning, Renfroe failed to get to a ball hit by Kwan, which turned into a double and the dagger for the Royals’ loss.