Thrown Away

In a huge series for the Royals, they couldn't quite stop the bleeding, even with Seth Lugo on the mound and Bobby Witt Jr. hitting bombs.

Every pitch is crucial. Every ground ball matters. That’s the world the Royals have created for themselves with the start to their season, and it is both infuriating and wonderful. Why is it infuriating? Because sometimes they have a bad inning or two that ultimately ends up leading to a loss against the only team they aren’t ahead of in the division. And that’s what happened last night against the first-place Guardians. Losing a game the team should win is frustrating enough, but losing that game against the team they’re chasing in the first of three is worse.

The Royals have had a tough time with the Guardians over the years, though they played them surprisingly tough last year with six wins in 13 games against them. That 6-7 record came with a -22 run differential that showed there was still a gap between the two. And now in a series beginning last night that featured the Guardians as the first place club and the Royals in second, it was an opportunity to show that the Royals have bridged the gap. It looked for a good chunk of the game that they had bridged that gap, but the end result was the same as so many others over the years.

It started out on an incredible note. Seth Lugo’s first three innings probably couldn’t have been scripted any better.