Royals tally first win of ’26 behind a Lugo win and Carter Jensen’s bat

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals tallied their first win of the 2026 season on Sunday afternoon, avoiding a sweep in Atlanta vs. the Braves.

The final score was 4-1, thanks to the efforts of Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Carter Jensen. Witt Jr. went 1-3 with a run scored, a walk and an RBI, Pasquantino had two hits and an RBI single and Jensen drove in one with a sacrifice fly and another with a home run.

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Seth Lugo made his first start of the season on Sunday as well. It was a great start to the 2026 campaign for him, who marked a similar line to yesterday’s start from fellow veteran Michael Wacha. Lugo’s final line ended up being 6.1 innings pitched, no earned runs, no walks and three strikeouts along with the winning decision.

Matt Strahm, John Schreiber and Lucas Erceg closed out the final 3.2 innings for the Royals, with Erceg seemingly assuming the closer’s role for now as questions and concerns surround Carlos Estevez after blowing up in the bottom of the ninth in Saturday’s bout.

The Royals’ home opener is set for Monday at 3:10 p.m. They’ll play their American League Central foes, the Minnesota Twins, who’ll send RHP Simeon Woods Richardson to the mound to face LHP Kris Bubic.

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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’