ATLANTA (AP) — Seth Lugo pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings and Carter Jensen homered to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 4-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.
Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino had RBI singles for the Royals, who blew a ninth-inning lead a day earlier and avoided a season-opening sweep. Witt had five hits in the series.
Jensen was 1 for 3 with two RBIs, adding a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to his solo home run in the fourth.
Lugo (1-0) gave up five hits, struck out three and walked none while throwing 55 of his 77 pitches for strikes. He did survive three deep fly balls with exit velocities all over 105 mph from Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and Michael Harris II that were caught up against the outfield wall.
Drake Baldwin hit a solo home run to right field with the Braves trailing 4-0 in the eighth inning.
Lucas Erceg picked up the save for the Royals with a scoreless ninth inning.
Royals closer Carlos Estévez was hit in the ankle during Saturday night's blown save and was in a walking boot Sunday morning. X-rays were negative, although Royals manager Matt Quatraro said it was the ankle that would keep Estévez out Sunday — not his shaky spring performance or because he surrendered six runs in 1/3 of an inning Saturday.
Braves starter Grant Holmes (0-1) gave up three runs in five innings with two walks and four strikeouts. Rookie Didier Fuentes, 20, gave up one run in four innings in relief of Holmes.
Royals: LHP Kris Bubic (8-7, 2.55 ERA in 2025) will face the Minnesota Twins in the Royals' 2026 home opener at Kauffman Stadium on Monday.
Braves: RHP Bryce Elder (8-11, 5.30) will oppose Athletics RHP Aaron Civale (4-9, 4.85) in the opener of a three-game series in Atlanta on Monday.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
Planning your dream wedding? Discover everything you need at the Wedding Fair in the Park – … Read moreWedding Fair in the Park
“Side-splittingly funny and brilliantly chaotic” Read moreThe Play That Goes Wrong
Dirk van Ulden said:
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.