The Royals opened up the season with as much anticipation as they have had a quite some time. The fans responded with the largest regular season crowd at Kauffman Stadium since 2017. They were treated with optimism and hope, something Royals fans haven’t had the luxury of receiving in over a decade.

The baseball team came up on the losing end unfortunately 7-4 against the Cleveland Guardians. It doesn’t matter because this is a marathon, not a sprint. There’s 161 more of these things to go.

But that’s not how fans think. We’re called fans for a reason. We’re unreasonable. We’re unrealistic. We’ll you’re not going to find that type of thinking here. I’ve watched a lot of Royals Baseball. The Royals started 0-2 last year and ended with 86 wins. We were the hottest team in baseball in April with Mike Matheny in 2021. That team ended with 74 wins and no playoff berth. The point is, it is way too early to make any determinations about how this Royals team will look over the course of the season based off of game #1. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun to overreact a little bit though right?

The lineup looked unimpressive outside of Vinnie Pasquntino. Vinnie sent a three-run blast over the left field wall in the 3rd inning. It was great to see Vinnie get off to a hot start after he scared everyone in the organization with an injury scare coming out of Spring Training. He was dealing with hamstring tightness early in the week, but was good enough to suit up on Thursday.

Bobby Witt Jr. had a bad day at the office with three strikeouts, but did leg out a infield single. He will have better days guys I promise. He’s still an MVP candidate, one bad game is not going to undo that.

Salvy, Massey, Maikel Garcia and Kyle Isbel were the other Royals to collect hits. Hunter Renfroe and Jonathan India both drove a frozen ropes to the warning track but did not end up with a hit. Jonathan India will be a great player for the Royals. He was one of the most impressive bats this Spring and looks to be seeing the ball well early. I’m less optimistic about Renfroe who is in the twilight of his career. I would not be surprised if the Royals are the last Major League team to employ him. Hopefully he can heat up, because he might be the first player demoted if he fails to produce. MJ looked like he did last year. Swinging and missing and not getting on base. He was pinch hit for Maikel Garcia in the 7th inning, and that could be a continuing theme for him. It looks like the Royals are starting to lose faith in him quickly. No one needs a hot start more than Melendez.

On the pitching side of things, Cole Ragans did not have his best stuff. It looked like he had his C+ stuff, only collecting three strikeouts through 5 IP. He talked about fighting some mechanics in his post-game press conference so let’s hope he can get things figured out in time for his next start. I’m not concerned as he’s proven to be as reliable a pitcher as the Royals have.

The bullpen was the bigger story today. Hunter Harvey, Lucas Erceg and Carlos Esteves all had good moments on Thursday. Sam Long and Angel Zerpa had games to forget. Zerpa gave up the home run that cost the Royals the lead in the top of 6th inning and Long gave up the winning runs in the extra innings. I’m more confident in Long’s ability to bounce back because Zerpa has not looked like himself since the end of last season. He imploded in the playoffs and he might be battling some confidence.

None of these issues are keeping me from believing this team will be in the postseason. They have all the ingredients. It will be up to health if the Royals will make it back to playoffs, but for now just enjoy the roller coaster ride because it’s just getting started.