Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. walks off the field after striking out against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals began the season with postseason aspirations — and despite being 15 games below .500, they are still in the Wild Card hunt at just 7 1/2 games back.
But they also have the worst record in the American League and were the punchline on a satirical website called the Babylon Bee. It had a story with this headline: “Kansas City Royals Somehow Find Way To Lose On Day When They Didn’t Play.”
This smacks of the 2000s, when the Royals’ troubles were a punchline on “The Simpsons.”
The fictional Bee story began with this: “In an achievement unprecedented in the history of Major League Baseball, the Kansas City Royals somehow managed to find a way to lose on a day when they didn’t play a game.
“The surprising accomplishment came on a much-needed day off for the club that has limped to the worst record in the American League, with the coaching staff and players struggling to explain how they managed to lose without playing.”
The story said relief pitcher Matt Strahm took the loss and then manufactured a quote they attributed to him.
“This one is on us,” the fake quote said. “I didn’t even pitch, so I’m not sure how this happened. But it is what it is. We’ll just keep battling and taking it one game at a time, even on days when we don’t have a game.”
Just a guess but the Babylon Bee writers caught wind of the Royals two-game stretch last week when they were outscored 35-3.
The Bee has 5.2 million followers on X and Royals fans shared their thoughts about it on social media.
The Kansas City Star
From covering the World Series to the World Cup, Pete Grathoff has done a little bit of everything since joining The Kansas City Star in 1997.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
