Sloppy Baseball and Bad Breaks

The game was entertaining and close all night, but the Royals made sloppy errors and were on the wrong side of fortune.

That was a bummer. Taking a step back from the Royals loss, it’s tough to argue that last night’s game wasn’t exciting. In a close game like that, the team that makes the fewest mistakes is often going to be the one that wins. That’s also true of the team that gets the best bounces. Unfortunately for the Royals, the Red Sox were the team that won in both of those categories, and that means they won the game too. And it was a loss that meant more than just a single loss in August because it was the fourth loss against Boston, which clinched them the season series.

Even though the Royals remain a half-game up on a playoff spot, many fans are probably back on the wagon that they won’t make it. That’s what losing two in a row in August does. It brings out the cynicism. But the reality is that whether it happens or not, they’re going to be right in it, and the season series matters. It’s the first tie-breaker and the Royals now are guaranteed to not hold that, no matter what happens today.