It’s the penultimate road game for the Royals on the final weekend of 2026 baseball for the good guys, and they’re still looking for their first series victory in September. If they don’t win today, they’ll have to wait for next week’s homestand against the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians, who are in a dogfight for the AL Central crown, so the odds don’t feel great for figuring it out then.
The bad news for the Royals is that they’ll be facing Pirates pitcher Bubba Chandler. The rookie righthander
debuted last year for the Pirates but didn’t pitch enough innings or spend enough time on the roster to lose his eligibility. He’s unlikely to win the award while in the same league as Nolan McLean, J.J. Wetherholt, and Carson Benge, but he’s having a more-than-solid campaign all the same.
He ostensibly features a six-pitch mix, but he throws his four-seam fastball nearly half the time. You’ll notice from the graphic above that, generally speaking, he doesn’t get an inordinate amount of chase, and he gets below-average whiffs. But his fastball does get chase and at least gets average whiffs. He also has positive xwOBACons across the board. You’ll also note a lot of orange in the velocity, extension, tjStuff+, and Grade columns, indicating that all of his pitches are nasty and they’re on you fast. It’s not going to be a fun day at the plate for the Royals.
The good news for the Royals is that Noah Cameron is pitching for probably the second-to-last time this year. One of the saddest parts about the end of the 2026 MLB season will be going more than five days without watching him put on a clinic as a pitcher after taking over pitch-calling duties for himself. Fingers crossed we get to really enjoy that today and one final time for this season next week.
Lineups
Jac Caglianone is back in the lineup tonight after getting last night off for seeming disciplinary reasons. Carter Jensen will get a shot to extend his Royals’ records for lead off home runs and rookie home runs. The Royals will bat three lefties in a row from 3-4-5, so I guess that means Matt Quatraro is cured of the curse many seem to believe he is under to create lineups that flip handedness regardless of any other factors?
