So, it's late August and, of course, the Royals are legitimately out of playoff contention. But this time of year always brings false hope to us True Blue faithful. While they haven't made the playoffs in 25 years, they always seem to put together an exciting winning streak this time of year to sucker us in for another season, sell some season ticket packages and make promises about "promising" young players.
Here's what happened this last week:
- Defeated the defending champion Yankees 1-0 on Sunday with former No. 1 pick Brian Bullington pitching eight innings (facing the minimum) and some help from a couple Yankee errors.
- Took 2 of 3 from the struggling Indians (having one of those "we really are a small-market team, aren't we?" seasons)
- Took 2 of 3 from the contending White Sox... which after a rain-out on Friday meant 3 games in two days and because of ridiculous scheduling and some extra innings meant 31 innings in 22 hours.
Okay, so what? The Yankees weren't being patient at the plate, the Indians don't have pitching, and the White Sox are self-destructing. No big deal. Most baseball fans don't get over excited about a 5-2 streak, especially this 5-2 streak that included one win by more than 1 run.
But that's just it. The Royals don't win 1-0 games... they don't win any 1-run games, especially extra-inning games. But when they pulled that 3-6-1 double play and then threw out Cervelli stealing against the Yankees, or when Betancourt hit the grand slam then drove in the winner in Game 1 Saturday, I get sucked in. I never constantly check the score, but on Saturday at the bar I was on the wife's phone refreshing the box score every 10 seconds (because the bar sucks and wouldn't put the game on... but little league softball was okay).
In 2003, The Sporting News ran a cover story "It's August. Do you know where the Royals are? That's right. First place." The quirky team that started 9-0 and 16-3, led the division for 107 days (by 7 games at one point), then faded in late September and finish 7 games out of the playoffs.
It was really rough on me because I was working at the Columbia Missourian and often found myself finishing articles late, while they put the sports section together, monitoring every Royals score like a pregnancy test. Turned out, an easy April-May stretch and a few contract-year performances led to the lead. Then they ran into the Angels, White Sox, Twins, and Yankees down the stretch. They went 13-16 when it mattered (the Twins and White Sox caught them with 29 games left and for a couple weeks they were within 2 games of each other).
I am by no means suggesting that the decent week for the Royals will lead to a playoff run. I'm just trying to show you what they can do to their fans.
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