The Royals had a 1 in 2.2 million chance of accomplishing this feat Wednesday
Maybe 2,000 people sat in the stands at a rain-soaked Kauffman Stadium nearing 9 p.m. Wednesday, the precipitation still falling and a thick fog limiting the visibility.
In a half-inning that spanned nearly half an hour, Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr. and Jonathan India all stepped to the plate with the bases loaded through the rainfall. India even made the most of his, a grand slam in a seven-run inning.
But this isn’t about the batters — not even the one who blasted a grand slam that won a fan $25,000.
It’s about those who initially loaded the bases: Jac Caglianone on third, Isaac Collins on second and Kyle Isbel on first.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
The Royals beat the Twins 13-9 in a marathon game that could’ve and should’ve been far shorter, but here’s a sentence we rarely used a year ago:
The bottom of the order carried the load — before the bottom rung of the bullpen made it interesting.
But the math behind the former is even rarer than the sentence.
In their initial trips to the plate in the second inning, Caglianone doubled, Collins doubled him home, and Isbel singled to score Collins.
In their second trips to the plate in the fourth inning, Caglianone singled, Collins was hit by a pitch, and Isbel bunted for a single to load the bases.
In their third trips to the plate, which came in that seven-run sixth inning, Caglianone was hit by a pitch, Collins walked and Isbel singled to again load the bases.
In his fourth time up, Caglianone singled.
That’s 10 plate appearances. It’s 10 times reaching base — 10 straight, actually.
But dating back even further to Monday’s home opener against the Twins, the bottom of the Royals’ order reached base safely in 12 straight plate appearances.
Which brings us to the math rarity. The 7-8-9 hitters in the Kansas City lineup last season combined for a .296 on-base percentage. That means their chances to reach base in 12 consecutive appearances was 0.0000452%.
That’s 1 in 2.21 million.
Amazing, isn’t it?
Oh, and after a Collins strikeout finally ended the streak in the sixth, Isbel promptly led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run.
Back on track.
Back on a far different track than a year ago.
The bottom of the Royals’ order was among the worst in baseball last season — the .296 on-base percentage, a .348 slugging percentage and a .644 OPS ranking among the bottom third of the league. The group scored only 184 runs in 162 games, an average of 1.14 per game.
On Wednesday, Caglianone, Collins and Isbel combined to score eight of the team’s 13 runs.
The bottom of the order did not score eight runs in any series last year — but it did get blanked in three separate series last year.
So the Royals just accomplished something in one night during the opening homestand that they could not accomplish in any series for an entire season.
There’s a reason I dubbed it one of the keys to 2026 — a reason anyone following this team probably did the same. If the back end had even been league average last year, the Royals could’ve accumulated somewhere in the neighborhood of five additional wins — the very gap by which they missed the playoffs.
They’ve been a tad better than league average in the opening week. It’s early, of course. Isbel is not going to hit .571 this year.
But through five games, the 7-8-9 hitters have combined for a .393 on-base percentage, .580 slugging percentage and .973 OPS. Each of those numbers far exceed the best in baseball last year.
As I said, it’s early.
But the Royals spanned 162 games last year without producing a single one like Wednesday.