ARCHIVE April 7, 2026
April 7, 2026 · AL Cent

Kansas City Royals vs Cleveland Guardians

April 7, 2026Progressive FieldSunny 33°F · 10 mph, L To R
AWAY
Kansas City Royals
5-6
1
vs
HOME
Cleveland Guardians
7-5
2

Starting pitchers

AWAY · KC
Noah Cameron
Noah Cameron
IP 5.2
HOME · CLE
Gavin Williams
Gavin Williams
IP 5.2

Lineups

AWAY · KC
  1. 1 Maikel Garcia 3B
  2. 2 Bobby Witt Jr. SS
  3. 3 Vinnie Pasquantino 1B
  4. 4 Salvador Perez DH
  5. 5 Carter Jensen C
  6. 6 Jonathan India 2B
  7. 7 Jac Caglianone RF
  8. 8 Isaac Collins LF
  9. 9 Kyle Isbel CF
HOME · CLE
  1. 1 Steven Kwan CF
  2. 2 Angel Martínez LF
  3. 3 José Ramírez 3B
  4. 4 David Fry DH
  5. 5 Rhys Hoskins 1B
  6. 6 Juan Brito 2B
  7. 7 CJ Kayfus RF
  8. 8 Austin Hedges C
  9. 9 Brayan Rocchio SS

Box score

  123456789 R
KC 010000000 1
CLE 000010001 2

Manager comparison

Both managers grade C / C+ entering this matchup.

AWAY · KC
Matt Quatraro
C Lineup 1.9 R Bunts 1.1 R IBBs 0.8 R
HOME · CLE
Stephen Vogt
C+ Lineup 1.5 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.4 R

Recent form

AWAY · KC
6-4 W1 +1 run diff
WLLWWWWWLL
HOME · CLE
6-4 W3 +7 run diff
WWWLLLWWWL

Season series: 2-3 with KC listed first across 5 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · Kansas City Royals
  • Manager lineup cost −0.03 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.40 vs actual lineup 3.43
  • Player execution −2.43 R/G Players fell 2.43 short of the lineup's 3.43 projection (scored 1)
  • Game variance −2.40 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Garcia 0-for-4 batting 1st

HOME · Cleveland Guardians
  • Manager lineup cost −0.09 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.71 vs actual lineup 4.80
  • Player execution −2.80 R/G Players fell 2.80 short of the lineup's 4.80 projection (scored 2)
  • Game variance −2.71 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Ramírez 0-for-4 batting 3rd

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.4 – 4.7 — actual was 1 – 2.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.