The Royals and Giants square off this weekend to continue their epic Battle of Ledgers

Feast your eyes upon this scroll of warriors! It reveals the mighty Giants who have clashed with the Royals in fierce battle and ruled victorious! You will be awed. Your mind will struggle to comprehend its power. Tremble before its sheer might!

That’s it? Just two warriors? How can this be? Where are the others?

The answer to your question, imaginary friend, is there are no more. A San Francisco Giant has hit a ledger home run off a Kansas City Royal only twice in history, the fewest of any combination of teams1.

Of course, the Giants and Royals only have the interleague era to draw upon. They have met twenty-two times in the regular season.

• June 13-15, 2003, in Kansas City

• June 7-9, 2005, in San Francisco

• June 20-22, 2009, in Kansas City

• August 8-10, 2014, in Kansas City

• April 18-19, 2017, in Kansas City

• June 13-14, 2017, in San Francisco

• June 13-15, 2022, in San Francisco

• April 7-9, 2023, in San Francisco

And in all these match-ups there were only two ledgers – Barry Bonds in 2003 and Brandon Belt in 2022. If you’re curious about all the non-ledgers that were hit by Giants players, we only add four more names.

• José Cruz, 2003 (ledgered against the Royals with the Blue Jays)

• Ray Durham, 2005 (White Sox)

• Michael Conforto, 2023 (Mets)

• LaMonte Wade Jr., 2023 (Twins)

What about the flip side – Royals who hit home runs against the Giants? That list is longer. Ledgers are marked with a *.

• Joe Randa, 2003*

• Desi Relaford, 2003*

• Michael Tucker, 2003

• Ángel Berroa, 2003*

• Mike Sweeney, 2003*

• Tony Graffanino, 2005

• José Guillén, 2008

• Billy Butler, 2014*

• Alex Gordon, 2014* (x2)

• Salvador Perez, 2014*

• Whit Merrifield, 2017*

• Jorge Bonifacio, 2017*

• Lorenzo Cain, 2017*

• Mike Moustakas, 2017*

• Vinnie Pasquantino, 2023*

• Salvador Perez, 2023 (x2)

• Franmil Reyes, 2023

• Bobby Witt Jr., 2023*

Furthermore, the Royals had three GAMES where they had two or more ledgers. Again, the Giants had two players TOTAL.

How will the 2024 series fare? Let’s take a look at some possible additions who are current members of each team’s active roster. The number in parenthesis indicates prior plate appearances in the match-up.

GIANTS needing one against the ROYALS

• Patrick Bailey (0)

• Jerar Encarnacion (0)

• Tyler Fitzgerald (0)

• Marco Luciano (0)

• Heliot Ramos (3)

• Casey Schmitt (0)

• Donovan Walton (4)

• Brett Wisely (0)

• Mike Yastrzemski (19)

• Grant McCray (0)

ROYALS needing one against the GIANTS

• Dairon Blanco (0)

• Freddy Fermin (0)

• Adam Frazier (137)

• Maikel Garcia (0)

• Kyle Isbel (15)

• Michael Massey (7)

• MJ Melendez (24)