It seems like a long time ago now, but the Royals were in the playoffs as recently as 2024. They vanquished the Baltimore Orioles, setting up a matchup against the Yankees in the ALDS.
The series was quickly developing a villain for Royals fans – Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. He had a cocky attitude and was unafraid to speak his mind. He had a controversial “safe call” in Game 1 when replays showed he might have been out, drawing the ire of Royals fans. Following a Game 2 win for Kansas City,
Chisholm fanned those flames by calling the Royals “lucky.”
“It still feels the same, that we’re going to win it. I don’t feel like anybody feels any different. We’re going to go out there and do our thing still, we still don’t feel like any team is better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight, so they just got lucky.”
Still, the Royals were heading back to Kansas City with a chance to take the series at home and shut Chisholm up for good. Instead, the Yankees took the next two games to advance to the ALCS. A tough series, but the Royals looked like they were the young guns on the rise.
The Royals traveled back to New York the next April and were promptly swept. When the Yankees came to town that June, and Chisholm was still beefing with Royals infielder Maikel Garcia, who had drawn ire from the Yankees in the 2024 ALDS for an aggressive slide. It didn’t matter. The Royals still lost. Again and again. In six games against the Yankees in 2025, the Royals lost all six, scoring a total of 11 runs.
In 2026, there has not even been an illusion that the Royals are on the same level as the Yankees. Kansas City has stumbled out of the gate, including a three-game sweep in the Bronx where the Yankees outscored them 24-6. The beatings continued this week in Kansas City with a devastating ninth inning loss on Monday, and a shellacking on Tuesday that effectively decided the game just as fans were getting comfortable in their seats.
So if you’re counting at home, the Royals have lost 13 games in a row to the New York Yankees. That is the worst stretch by any Royals team against their pinstriped enemies – the previous record was a 12-game losing streak by the 1997-98 Royals.
That’s right, no other Royals team has been as thoroughly dominated by the Yankees as this team.
Not the expansion franchise when it was first getting started with a collection of castoffs from around the league.
Not the up-and-coming Royals when they took on George Steinbrenner’s high-priced collection of free agents like Reggie Jackson.
Not the late-90s Royals, adrift without an owner, facing one of the greatest Yankees dynasties ever assembled.
Not even the slap-hitting clubs under Trey Hillman with Kyle Davies on the mound did this.
This team.
They’ve lost close games and blowouts. They’ve lost with Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Cole Ragans, and Kris Bubic on the mound. They’ve certainly lost with Bailey Falter on the mound (dear lord what were they thinking putting him out there?)
Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Ben Rice have each hit four home runs during this streak – Chisholm has hit two. The Royals are hitting .177 as a team over those 13 games. Maikel Garcia is hitting .106. Kyle Isbel is hitting .083. Isaac Collins has yet to get a hit in 13 tries.
The 2024 Royals did not feel like a fluke at the time. Even in defeat, the Royals looked like they belonged on that field. They had a superstar MVP candidate, a great pitching staff, some rising stars, and seemed like a team that would pay their dues that year, but use it to fuel them for deeper runs in subsequent years.
Now, less than two years later, the gap feels wider instead of narrower.
Sure, the Yankees have gotten better. They’ve spent more. But the Royals were supposed to have gotten better too. They’re spending a near-club record $140 million on payroll this year.
The most concerning part isn’t that the Royals keep losing to the Yankees. The Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball. Plenty of clubs lose to them.
It’s that the matchup has become so predictable.
The Yankees patiently wait for a hittable pitch. The Royals do not.
The Yankees hit mistakes over the wall. The Royals do not.
The Yankees turn a baserunner into a crooked number. The Royals turn baserunners into stranded runners.
The Yankees punish thin margins. The Royals have to play perfectly just to stay close.
In October 2024, the Royals looked like a young club knocking on the door. In May 2026, they look like a joke. They will have to spend the rest of this season proving the 2024 season wasn’t just dumb luck.
