ARCHIVE April 9, 2026
April 9, 2026 · AL Cent

Chicago White Sox vs Kansas City Royals

April 9, 2026Kauffman StadiumPartly Cloudy 78°F · 9 mph, Out To LF
AWAY
Chicago White Sox
5-8
2
vs
HOME
Kansas City Royals
5-8
0

Starting pitchers

AWAY · CWS
Anthony Kay
Anthony Kay
IP 5.2
HOME · KC
Seth Lugo
Seth Lugo
IP 6.1

Lineups

AWAY · CWS
  1. 1 Chase Meidroth 2B
  2. 2 Munetaka Murakami 1B
  3. 3 Miguel Vargas 3B
  4. 4 Colson Montgomery SS
  5. 5 Andrew Benintendi DH
  6. 6 Dustin Harris LF
  7. 7 Edgar Quero C
  8. 8 Luisangel Acuña CF
  9. 9 Tristan Peters RF
HOME · KC
  1. 1 Maikel Garcia 3B
  2. 2 Bobby Witt SS
  3. 3 Vinnie Pasquantino 1B
  4. 4 Salvador Perez C
  5. 5 Lane Thomas RF
  6. 6 Jac Caglianone DH
  7. 7 Jonathan India 2B
  8. 8 Isaac Collins LF
  9. 9 Kyle Isbel CF

Box score

  123456789 R
CWS 000100100 2
KC 000000000 0

Manager comparison

Both managers grade D- / C entering this matchup.

AWAY · CWS
Will Venable
D- Lineup 3.2 R Bunts 2.2 R IBBs 1.1 R
HOME · KC
Matt Quatraro
C Lineup 1.9 R Bunts 1.1 R IBBs 0.8 R

Recent form

AWAY · CWS
6-4 L3 +9 run diff
LLLWLWWWWW
HOME · KC
6-4 W1 +1 run diff
WLLWWWWWLL

Season series: 2-2 with CWS listed first across 4 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 · Chicago White Sox
  • Manager lineup cost +0.03 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.20 vs actual lineup 3.17
  • Player execution −1.17 R/G Players fell 1.17 short of the lineup's 3.17 projection (scored 2)
  • Game variance −1.20 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Vargas 0-for-3 batting 3rd

HOME · Kansas City Royals
  • Manager lineup cost +0.16 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.83 vs actual lineup 4.67
  • Player execution −4.67 R/G Players fell 4.67 short of the lineup's 4.67 projection (scored 0)
  • Game variance −4.83 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Pasquantino 0-for-4 batting 3rd

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.2 – 4.8 — actual was 2 – 0.

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.