Limping Toward the Finish Line

Why have the Royals been able to beat the White Sox in recent weeks and not the Indians? Law of averages maybe. But the White Sox have been tanking for a while now and the Indians are putting together an unbelievable run—so that probably has more to do with it than anything. That, and the Indians starting rotation, which shut us down. Yesterday it was C.C. Sabathia's turn, giving up just 5 H, 0 ER, in 8 IP, while Lima got shelled for 8 more runs in 4 IP to see his ERA climb to 6.95. Indians 11, Royals 0.  

We now stand one loss away from the embarrassing 100 mark—for the third time in the last four years, prompting Jeff Passan to say the following in his column today: "They’ve been sad. Embarrassing. Weak. Not only are the Royals about to lose No. 100—the accepted benchmark of baseball misery—they on occasion play like men much older. Much more weary and world-worn."

The Royals are now 51 games below .500. Nobody (almost literally) is showing up to watch them play at home. And, if Passan's comments bear any truth, all of the losses are taking their toll on the team. They know how bad they are and at this point, everybody except the marketing department seems to have given up. Ironically, just this moment, I received an e-mail from them titled, "Great Royals Seats Still Available for the Tigers and Indians series."

Yeah, ya think?