ARCHIVE April 8, 2026
April 8, 2026 · AL Cent

Kansas City Royals vs Cleveland Guardians

April 8, 2026Progressive FieldSunny 50°F · 8 mph, Out To LF
AWAY
Kansas City Royals
5-7
2
vs
HOME
Cleveland Guardians
8-5
10

Starting pitchers

AWAY · KC
Luinder Avila
Luinder Avila
IP 3
HOME · CLE
Joey Cantillo
Joey Cantillo
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 Lane Thomas CF
  7. 7 Jonathan India 2B
  8. 8 Starling Marte RF
  9. 9 Michael Massey LF
HOME · CLE
  1. 1 Steven Kwan CF
  2. 2 Angel Martínez LF
  3. 3 José Ramírez 3B
  4. 4 David Fry DH
  5. 5 Chase DeLauter RF
  6. 6 Rhys Hoskins 1B
  7. 7 Juan Brito 2B
  8. 8 Austin Hedges C
  9. 9 Brayan Rocchio SS

Box score

  123456789 R
KC 000110000 2
CLE 310010050 10

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 +0.01 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.76 vs actual lineup 3.75
  • Player execution −1.75 R/G Players fell 1.75 short of the lineup's 3.75 projection (scored 2)
  • Game variance −1.76 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Perez 0-for-4 batting 4th

HOME · Cleveland Guardians
  • Manager lineup cost +0.12 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.79 vs actual lineup 4.67
  • Player execution +5.33 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.67 projection by 5.33 (scored 10)
  • Game variance +5.21 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Brito 2-for-4 from the 7-hole

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.8 – 4.8 — actual was 2 – 10.

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.