While the Los Angeles Angels have ended their first true skid on the young season, the Kansas City Royals continue to struggle.

Looking to build on a needed victory, the visiting Angels try to hand the Royals a 10th loss in 11 games on Friday night.

Los Angeles ended a four-game losing streak, during which it totaled six runs, with its 7-3 home win over Toronto on Wednesday. The triumph somewhat salvaged a 2-4 homestand for the Angels, who continue to hover around the .500 mark to open the campaign.

“When you try to make this game harder than it is, then it’s going to get really hard,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Stay with the course.”

Los Angeles is averaging 3.4 runs while 5-7 at home, but 6.1 in splitting their first 14 road contests.

On Wednesday, Angels star Mike Trout clubbed his first home run this season at home, where he’s batting .158 in 11 contests. However, he’s batting .300 with seven homers, 17 walks and 16 RBIs on the road.

Trout has batted .315 with six home runs and 18 RBIs in 34 career games at Kansas City. He’s 0-for-1 with two walks against scheduled Royals starter Noah Cameron (1-1, 5.40 ERA).

The Kansas City left-hander allowed only two runs and no homers over 10 2/3 innings of his first two starts this season. However, he has yielded 12 runs (10 earned) and five homers over 9 1/3 innings in two games since. Three of those long balls came over four innings of Saturday’s 13-4 loss to the host New York Yankees.

“I don’t know if I lost focus or they just started putting the bat on the ball and started making some mistake pitchers there,” Cameron said. “Just got to get back in the zone and attack and try to get us out of there.”

The Royals won three of their first five games in 2026 but have just five wins since. That includes one in the last 10 games, during which time its pitchers have a 6.16 ERA with 18 home runs and 54 walks allowed.

“If we get too focused and caught up in what’s happened over the last couple of weeks, we’re not going to be able to move forward,” Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo said.

Baltimore went deep twice Wednesday during an 8-6 defeat of the host Royals. Meanwhile, Kansas City’s Carter Jensen hit his team-leading sixth homer and is 7-for-13 with four RBIs in his last four contests.

Kansas City All-Star third baseman Maikel Garcia is batting .353 with two homers and nine RBIs in 13 home games, but his status for this series opener is uncertain after he exited Wednesday with elbow soreness.

“Just have to see how he feels come Friday,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.

Garcia is 1-for-10 versus scheduled Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi, while fellow star teammate Bobby Witt Jr., batting .368 in the last five games, is 0-for-12 against the left-hander.

Kikuchi (0-2, 5.63) is 4-2 with a 4.72 ERA in 10 career starts against the Royals. He allowed 15 runs over 18 innings of his first four 2026 starts. Then he struck out eight with one walk and four hits over six scoreless innings Saturday in a no-decision versus San Diego.

“That’s kind of the Kikuchi that we’re used to seeing, that type of guy where he’s attacking with the fastball,” Suzuki said.

–Field Level Media

Maybe the Seattle Mariners’ big three are finally getting over their World Baseball Classic hangovers.

Over their just-completed six-game homestand, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and Josh Naylor’s bats started to heat up.

The Mariners went 3-3 against a pair of American League West rivals, the Texas Rangers and the Athletics, and start a six-game trip Friday in St. Louis with an interleague encounter against the Cardinals.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday and the score tied at 4-4 against the A’s, Raleigh grounded a single to center field. Rodriguez followed by grounding a single to left, sending Raleigh to second, and he scored on Naylor’s line-drive single to left.

“These guys have really found a good groove,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Their at-bats have been outstanding, I was super impressed there with two outs, Cal getting the hit up the middle, Julio going into the hole and then Naylor going the other way to win it.”

Entering that homestand, the Mariners’ Nos. 2-4 hitters were scuffling. Raleigh was batting .169 with two homers and 11 RBIs, Rodriguez was hitting .200 with one homer and six RBIs, and Naylor was at .118 with two homers and seven RBIs.

During the six games, Raleigh went 7-for-24 with three homers — one in each of the past three games — and three RBIs; Rodriguez was 9-for-23 with two RBIs; and Naylor was 9-for-17 with three RBIs.

“You work hard to get those results,” Naylor said. “It’s a hard game we play. It’s arguably the hardest sport. We chose to play it — and we’re idiots for choosing it — but we did. And we have decided to come to this ballpark every day and grind.”

The Mariners hope to continue to progress on the road, where they’re 1-8 this season with eight consecutive defeats. They’ve been outscored 33-19 during the skid.

“We’ll take this on the road with us and take some momentum from it for sure,” Wilson said.

The Cardinals return home after going 4-2 on a six-game trip to Houston and Miami.

They lost 4-1 to the Marlins on Wednesday but got a chance to give Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn a day off.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol called it a “no-brainer” to get his key players two days off in a row with the team being idle Thursday.

“It’s hard because you want to empty out (the bench) and just take your shot,” Marmol said after the defeat. “But this early on (in the season), you also have to be disciplined about keeping your word. Hit the reset button. Getting (Thursday) off for some guys, two days off for the guys who needed it is important. It may not seem that way from a fan perspective. You look at it and go, ‘Gosh, hit Walker, Winn and Burly.’ That stuff catches up with you.”

Friday’s series opener is set to feature a pair of right-handers in the Mariners’ George Kirby (3-2, 2.97 ERA) and the Cardinals’ Andre Pallante (2-1, 4.05).

Kirby has won his past two starts, including a 7-3 decision against Texas on Saturday in which he allowed one run over 5 2/3 innings. He’s 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in two previous starts against St. Louis.

Pallante is coming off a 7-5 victory Saturday in Houston in which he gave up one run in five innings. This will be his first appearance against the Mariners.

–Field Level Media