KANSAS CITY – One day last August, in the middle of one of the worst years in franchise history, Royals manager Matt Quatraro called a meeting. It had been a brutal summer, a young team taking regular hits, a pitching staff falling apart, a first-time manager trying to survive.

Quatraro hated the loss. What manager wouldn’t do that? But what really irritated him was the feeling that his players were counting down, more concerned about next winter or season than about the moment at hand. He didn’t want to sleepwalk for the last two months. He didn’t want to waste today.

“There is very little that is guaranteed in this game, but also in life,” he said, reflecting on the story one day earlier this month.

What came out wasn’t exactly planned. Quatraro simply spoke from his heart. The Kansas City Royals had nothing to lose. The future was not promised. Start making changes today.

Today.

Quatraro kept saying that word. It wasn’t intentional. It just came out. But something about the mantra stuck. It carried the club through a 15-12 finish last September, through a transformative winter, and through a sneaky good start in April, when the rest of baseball was watching curiously. It took the Royals from a franchise-record 106 losses in 2023 to their first postseason appearance in nine years to a two-game sweep of Baltimore in the Wild Card Series, and it took them all the way to Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium. Game 4 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees, where the defining image of a 3-1 loss was shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. who was alone in the dugout leaning against the railing.

Witt, the 24-year-old star of the Royals, watched as the Yankees celebrated their series victory. He wanted to take it all in.

“That’s where I want to be,” Witt said.

Bobby Witt Jr. scores in the sixth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS on Thursday. (Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images)

The end of the line in Kansas City was painful. Over the past forty years, the Royals have been defined by glorious highs and long playoff droughts. This was, astonishingly, the first time since 1984 that a playoff appearance in Kansas City ended before the World Series. Still, the hope in the home clubhouse was that it could be motivating.

The Royals got a taste this year. They won 86 games – an improvement of 30 wins from last year. They brought playoff baseball back to Kauffman Stadium for the first time since 2015, when they won the franchise’s second World Series. They scared the Yankees, the top seed in the American League, by losing three games by a total of four points. They now want to do even more.

“It’s something that will light a torch in you and leave you with a bad taste for the future,” Witt said. “Because this is what we want for Kansas City Royals baseball right now. This is what we will do every year. We’re entering the postseason. Now it’s about how far we go.

“This is not the way we’re going to get there. It’s about how far we go. That’s what we’re going to work for and that’s what we’re going to do.”

The specifics of the final loss in Game 4 revealed a theme: the margins between the Royals and Yankees were small but consistent. Kansas City had starter Michael Wacha and a collection of relievers scratching and clawing to hold the Yankees to three runs. New York had ace Gerrit Cole, who pumped 98 mph fastballs to all quadrants of the strike zone. New York had Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who produced an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning. The Royals had center fielder Kyle Isbel, who delivered a shocker on a 98 mph fastball with a runner on and the score 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh.

The sound of a bat hitting the ball caused Cole to turn and stare at the night sky. For a moment, it looked like the ball might reach the bullpen in right field, tying the game. But he ran out of gas and fell into Juan Soto’s glove at the foot of the wall, 400 feet from home plate. It would have been a home run in 24 of the 30 parks in Major League baseball. But Isabel said he didn’t understand everything.

This catch by Kyle Isbel would have been a home run in 24 ballparks, including Yankee Stadium pic.twitter.com/AFowuqqUsi

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) October 11, 2024

“It kind of took hold of me,” Isabel said. “I thought it had a chance. But it is a big stadium. Me personally, I gotta get it all. I saw him drift back a little, so I had some hope. But it was just a bit disappointing.”

The ball also had to fight through crosswinds, measured at a speed of 10 km/h when the game started. They weren’t the kind of gusts that would knock a ball over. But it was enough to make you wonder.

“I thought it was a home run,” Witt said. “It’s one of those games where baseball is a crazy game. Wind, whatever it is, changes, and right there is the tie.

Witt stood in a quiet clubhouse, surrounded by reporters, the most noticeable noise being the sounds of back slaps, hand shakes and thank yous. The sudden death of a baseball season can come quickly. You are with one group for eight months and then you say goodbye. On Thursday, the Royals could take solace in the fact that much of their core will return. Witt is a rising superstar. Catcher Salvador Pérez will return for another year. Starting pitchers Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo will headline the rotation. One player who may not return is Wacha, who started Game 4 and allowed two runs over 4 2/3 innings. He has a player option to become a free agent.

“It’s an unpleasant feeling right now,” Wacha said. “We feel like we still have to play, still have to play another game. It’s not a nice feeling.”

It didn’t matter that very few people expected the Royals to face the Yankees here in October. They had suffered three 100-loss seasons since 2018 and had averaged 97 losses from 2021 to 2023. This year, they became just the third team in MLB history to make the playoffs a year after losing 100 games — and the first to win a postseason. series.

“Even though we lost the series, last year we lost 100 games and this year we proved that we can play baseball and play at this level,” said third baseman Maikel Garcia, through interpreter Luis Perez.

The Royals can rue the missed opportunities. All teams do that. They had a chance to steal Game 1 against Cole in New York and lost 6-5. They had Lugo, an All-Star this season, in Game 3. They lost that too by one point. Their pitchers walked too many batters. Witt and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino combined for three hits in the series.

“Our guys had higher expectations for themselves, and that’s how you have to approach this game,” Quatraro said. “You don’t come here thinking, ‘Oh, I hope things get a little better.’ It doesn’t work that way at the big league level.

“I think it’s okay that it sucks now.”

For 197 days, the Royals of 2024 had lived by a simple coda: Today.

Thursday was the last day.

The mantra will somehow continue beyond this year. The best, Witt said defiantly, is yet to come. That’s why he wanted to sit alone in the dugout and watch the Yankees celebrate on his home field. The Royals will be back, he said. They know what they want to become.

“That’s the reality,” he said. “That’s who we are now.”

(Top photo of Bobby Witt Jr.: Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)