Painful White Sox series has made Royals' greatest issue too glaring to ignore

After a winning week versus a pair of division rivals last week, the Kansas City Royals have undone much of that momentum with back-to-back 6-5 losses to the perennially rebuilding Chicago White Sox this week. Not only did Wednesday's loss drop them five games below .500 and in a tie for the worst record in the AL Central, but it also hammered home one issue that's no doubt been the Royals most consistent issue to start the 2026 season.

The Royals can't seem to put things together on the road. Sure they look strong at home this season at 13-10 with plenty of individual names excelling at Kauffman Stadium, but 81 games are played on the road too, and contending teams find ways to win away from home. The Royals simply are just not doing that.

Wednesday's loss pushed the Royals' road-record to 6-14 - tied with the Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays for the fewest wins so far this season and giving them the lowest road-winning percentage of any team in baseball at .300.

It's been an all around brutal showing and everyone is to blame. The offense looks a complete shell of itself away from Kauffman and the pitching staff looks less like the respectable entity many have come to know them as.

The Royals have been in a place of hopeful contention for three seasons now, but unfortunately, struggles on the road like this aren't something they've dealt with during this span.

In both 2024 and 2025, the Royals were in and around the .500 mark away from home, sitting with 41-40 and 39-42 records respectively by the end of the seasons. And at the May 14 mark in both those years, it looked much the same as the end of season results, as they sat at 11-10 and 9-13 respectively. They've never been great outside their grounds, but they've never been flat out awful and put themselves behind the eight-ball in the early going like they have this year.

Royals' upcoming road schedule doesn't give fans a ton of reason for optimism

If fans are thinking brighter days will be ahead all of sudden for the Royals away from Kauffman, they're sorely mistaken. The next three series don't offer much at all in terms of finding their footing.

After they wrap up their series in Chicago against the White Sox, Kansas City heads down the I-70 for a three-game set against their in-state rivals in the St. Louis Cardinals - who happen to sit at 24-18 this season. Then, after a nine-game home stand, the Royals head back out onto the road on for a three-game weekend set against the 21-22 AL West hopefuls in the Texas Rangers from May 29-31, followed then by the 22-21 NL Wild Card hopefuls in the Cincinnati Reds from June 1-3.

Looking even further, a four-game set against the newly rebuilding Minnesota Twins to round off that lengthy road-trip looks promising on paper, however, as it stands now, the Royals hold the same record as the Twins and inter-division matchups are always tricky, especially in a jam-packed AL Central division.

There's no reason to throw in the towel yet, as there's reasons to believe better days in general are still potentially ahead for this team. However, something has to change away from home if the Royals want any hope of being a postseason contender this year. Unfortunately, with the middle of May already upon us, the hourglass is depleting quicker and quicker though.

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