The Gauntlet

We've been eyeing this next set of games for a few weeks now. It's here, and the Royals have everything to gain (and a lot to lose).

It’s natural to look at the schedule and pick out interesting pockets of games when the season begins. I remember looking at the start of the season and seeing the Royals played nine of the first 13 against playoff teams from last season and 25 of the first 38. In those stretches, they went 9-4 and 22-16, respectively. Add in three against a Mets team that was expected to be okay and three against a Tigers team that everyone thought could compete for a Wild Card spot, and that’s a pretty brutal start.

In hindsight, that stretch doesn’t look as daunting because seven of those games were against the Blue Jays, and three were against a Rangers team that will need a near miracle just to get into the playoffs. But we didn’t know at the time. The schedule lightened up for a couple of weeks. Then they had a pretty crazy stretch that started with going to Tampa Bay for three and included a four-game series in Minnesota and three against San Diego before an off-day, and then 13 straight against four different teams that were in first place at the time. They only ended up playing 12 against the first place teams because of a rainout. But that’s another brutal stretch. They went 9-13 total and 5-7 against the first place teams.