As Argentina and Algeria prepare to take over the sports complex on Tuesday, the 29-43 Royals find themselves on the road for a single series against the surprising 37-35 Washington Nationals, who are in third place in the NL East.
James Wood and CJ Abrams provide the thump in the lineup, and they both remain quite young. It feels like I’ve been hearing about those guys for a decade, but Abrams is 25 and Wood is 23. That Juan Soto trade returned Wood, Abrams, and MacKenzie Gore among others. The Nationals traded Gore prior to the 2026 season. Seems like that trade worked out pretty well for the Nationals I guess. Soto himself is still not yet 28. Having said all that, if you asked me to name anyone besides Wood or Abrams in their starting lineup, I would have struggled mightily.
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The projected starter is Andrew Alvarez, who just turned 27 a couple days ago. He’s a ground-ball specialist not unlike Brady Singer. Alvarez gives up a few more walks but not as many homers as Singer. At least so far – he’s got only 47 and 2/3 MLB innings under his belt.
On the Royals side, Vinnie Pasquantino hit the IL. John Rave is up for him. Cole Ragans is still not rehabbing well. Kyle Isbel is out for a long time. Seth Lugo is on the concussion IL. The Royals are stashing outfielders on the bench like they’re going out of style. The Royals scheduled starter is Mitch Spence, who was last seen giving up six runs in four innings against the Yankees in April. In AAA on May 26, he gave up 13 runs in 3 innings on 4 homers. Bobby’s having an MVP season and Cags seems to be heating up, but the Royals don’t have much else to feel good about.
In other words, these teams are not going in the same direction. And that’s a shame. The Royals are basically out of time to right the ship. They are in last place in the AL Central. Eat Arby’s.
The game starts at 5:45pm US Central time. You can watch on Royals.tv or listen on 96.5 The Fan/The Royals Radio Network.
Lineups:
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