By MATT PIKE
Two long balls were all the the Kansas City Royals needed to cap an emotional Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium, in which the Royals celebrated the life of outfielder Terrance Gore, earning a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Twins.
As excitement pulsed through the stands of a newly renovated Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City also made sure to take a step back, holding a moment of silence for Gore and had a special tribute put together for his family. Gore passed away in February at just 34 years old.
“It’s such a tragic thing to lose a guy at 34 years old,” general manager J.J. Picollo said to reporters prior to the game, before taking a moment to collect his thoughts as he held back tears. “It’s the least we could do for his family. It’ll be fun to see his kids out there. His son’s a baseball player. He was very involved with his youth team. So we had Zane out on the field [in Atlanta] running around. Our players do what they do – they’re special guys. They made that day special. And hopefully it’s the same thing today, and our fans appreciate celebrating Terrance’s life.”
The fans delivered in that regard when the Gore family was honored during the pregame ceremony. Shortly after the moment of silence, the Royals welcomed Gore's wife, Britney, and three children onto the field. Picollo was there with flowers for Britney and took the youngest Gore, Skylyn, in his arms.
Picollo, Britney, Skylyn and Camden – the second Gore son – turned to watch Zane, the eldest, throw a perfect first pitch to Royals Hall of Famer Alex Gordon. Much like the fans did whenever Gore was stealing and dashing around the bases for the Royals, they erupted in an ovation when the ball hit Gordon’s glove behind home plate.
With the emotions still high, the game got underway, and in the top of the second inning Kansas City fell behind as after a scoreless first, starting pitcher Kris Bubic gave up a solo home run to Matt Wallner to open the scoring. Bubic bounced back though retiring the next three batters, and in the bottom half of the inning the Royals took the lead. Jonathan India led the frame off with a single, and after Jac Caglianone and Isaac Collins flew out to center field, Kyle Isbel hit his first home run of the season, and the first at "The K" to put Kansas City up 2-1.
After the solo home run, Bubic gave up just one more hit over the next four innings before being relieved by Daniel Lynch who threw a scoreless, hitless seventh inning. In the bottom half of the seventh, Collins finally recorded his first hit in a Royals uniform, extending the lead to 3-1 as he sent the ball 400 feet to left field with one out in the inning.
New Royals reliever Nick Mears replaced Lynch for the eighth and gave up one hit, striking out one, before he handed the ball over to John Schreiber for the save situation with Lucas Erceg nor Matt Strahm available to pitch after pitching two days in a row. Schreiber gave up a single to Ryan Jeffers with two outs, but then forced Wallner to ground out, earning his first save of the season.
Bubic earned the win pitching six innings and giving up two hits and one run on the solo home run, striking out four and walking three. At the plate, Isbel was 2-for-3 with the home run and two RBI's also stealing a base. Maikel Garcia was 2-for-4 with a double.
Kansas City and Minnesota are off on Tuesday and will be back in action on Wednesday. St. Joseph's Noah Cameron is set to make his season debut for the Royals against Joe Ryan for the Twins. First pitch is at 6:40pm, pregame will air at 6 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.