Going for an unprecedented sweep of the Twins last night the Royals came oh so close to getting their first sweep of the Twins in 12 years. The Royals played about 24 innings of some of their best baseball of the year, but starting in that 25th inning they did what they usually do and found a way to lose the game. Hoch got tapped around a bit and might have been hurt by a defensive lapse when Kila tried to make a great double-play instead of taking a sure out at home. Then Delmon Young hit a Home Run that stayed fair by inches, the Royals struck out some more, Jesse Chavez did what he does and gave up a run, then Ned does what managers do and asked the teams hottest hitter to bunt with the winning runs on base in the bottom of the ninth which, of course, led to another strike-out (number 15) and Billy did what he does and grounded into another double play to end the game. Prior to inning number six it looked good and we were on our way to extracting some minor revenge on our arch nemesis at the end of the year. But on the bright side those first 24 innings are why we're still watching this pathetic team on September 30th.
Home Runs Help: The Royals hit six home runs in the series and we can see that the equation is pretty simple; more home runs = more runs. It takes three singles to score a run but only one home run, okay I'll stop restating the obvious, but the big hit is something the Royals have been lacking all year long, we've had the hits (2nd in the AL), just not the big ones (2nd to last in HRs) and folks its the big ones that really add up. Lets get our head out of the 80s and realize that modern baseball requires hitters that can turn the game around with one swing, the Royals need those players. Yuni and the dearly departed Jose Guillen will lead our team with less than 20 a piece and even though you can point to our pitching as the main reason for this year's disaster, we won't contend until we have more than two guys who can hit 20 HRs.
Pitching & Defense, I guess: Seriously, how do the Twins do it? They've lost one of the best closers (Joe Nathan), one of the best offensive players (Morneau), played a lot without their starting SS (JJ Hardy), lost more relievers and yet still, here they are running away with the Central, AGAIN! Through all of this, they still have one of the best pitching staffs and one of the best defenses and by pretty much all statistical measures we have the worst in each of those categories. Well their offense isn't bad either, but is it really that simple?
The curse of the....Is there a goat or Babe Ruth incident that we as Royals fans are not aware of? The Twins have been killing us for a long, long time now, when will it stop, when can we just be two competitive mid-western teams battling for the division and not on completely different ends of the spectrum? Will Obama still be president, will the PBR still be around, will internet still be used? Lets just call it a Curse to be Named Later, do our best rain dances when the end of the year comes and hope this is the last time we reside in the cellar of the AL Central for a long time.
Bring on part II of the Royals end of the year look at teams whom they should aspire to be, as the Rays come to town looking to take the AL East crown away from the Yanks. Hopefully this is also a preview of what the Royals will someday be and should serve as a nice little test to try and close out the year with your head-up (or as high as you can hold it for finishing last in the Central). Good luck to Zach tonight as it would be nice to see him pitch well and forget about his last outing and end a mostly forgettable year.
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