mathematically eliminated #20 the Kansas City Royals

It has been fun doing this and thinking of teams on the brink of elimination. Last Tuesday, after losing the White Sox, the Royals were about to be forced out. They'd already been gone from wild card contention, but the AL Central is a land of midgets where anything can happen (which hopefully means the Tigers win it, but that is another story). But the Royals were facing mathematical elimination on Wednesday... but beat the Sox. Then they did it again on Thursday. The White Sox flew west to face the Angels and the Indians came to Kansas City, so with there being zero room for mistakes - the Royals had to win out their season, and White Sox lose it out - it seemed like it would happen quickly. But Friday night, both the Angels and Royals won. Then it happened again yesterday, and not only were the Royals still not mathematically eliminated, but the Tigers had moved into half a game of the White Sox. That meant they'd have to start losing too.
Today, in the first game of a doubleheader, the Tigers did exactly that. The Royals were still hanging tough. But then they got crushed by the Indians, 15 to 4, and the magic rally was over. The Royals are now mathematically eliminated from Major League Baseball 2012 World Championship contention. Still though, this scrappy bunch of shitheads outlasted a third of the MLB, solidly ensuring their position as middle class status, albeit very low middle class status. Perhaps this is a thing to build upon, perhaps it is a thing to forget. I am not one to say. Only time to can reveal such mysteries.

Royals 11, Blue Jays 3; Blue Jays 6, Royals 3; Blue Jays 4, Royals 1; Royals 9, Blue Jays 6: Can This Really Be All We Are?

where have you gone, ricky ro?

While far from the worst butt, a four-game split with the Kansas City Royals at home is still firmly on the butt spectrum. I am genuinely pleased that this reborn Brett Cecil had another pretty good start (that's three of four, right?), and I always enjoy the work of Carlos Villanueva, but the sad tale of Ricky Romero renders all that moot, kind of, in that it is so bad it makes you want to forget about all Blue Jays starting pitching except for Brandon Morrow oh wait he is out for weeks. I believe it was Stoeten who said on the DJF podcast the other day that for all the awfulness of watching this once and future boss (my words not his) struggle so mightily out there, Ricky Romero is sort of doing the lord's work, in that he (along with the until-recently-winless Cliff Lee) is helping show yet again how dumb and pointless pitcher wins are as a stat. Ricky Romero is 8-3! What a great first half! Except he is awful! And he knows it! And it is clearly killing him! Note however that it can never kill us, because I am still firmly in this man's corner in the style of a NJPW Young Lion or possibly a squire of some kind, bringing him cool drinks between innings (in my heart). 


In other news, Jose Bautista continues to be utterly ripshit. I fucking love this guy. Hey did you know who he credits with turning his career around? Blue Jays hitting coach Dwayne Murphy, and motherfucking Clarence "Cito" Gaston motherfuckers.

yeah that's right

Is that Jerry Howarth behind him? If it isn't, it should be, because he owns too. 


In closing I would like to salute once more the fine people at DJF, who have started posting annotated win probability graphics after every game, which is probably the best idea in basbeall coverage in ever. Here are my two favourites from this Royals series, first this:

And then from last night:

An excellent idea excellently executed imo.


KS

Blue Jays 4, Royals 1: Joseph Batstista is The Best

high five high five high five high five high five high five high five

Yes, Kelly Johnson hit a solo shot, and Brandon Morrow pitched well enough into the seventh, even managing to strand runners, which is not something he seemed to do even once ever last season, but what I would like to focus on here is how Bruce Chen walked Johnson in the sixth and was probably like "well dang" because Bautista was due up next and then sure enough, next pitch, dinger. Loved it. Also acquitting himself beautifully tonight: Blue Jays colour guy Alan Ashby, who commented on Brandon Morrow throwing away a bunted ball, and he said something like, so that's a bunt single and an error to put a man on second, and had he made it all the way to third on that play all the moms would have really been cheering hard at the little league diamond, and it was like oh man burn. Finally, proving that I do not understand anything about our beloved sport, the word from Bautista himself is that he has been trying too hard to hit the ball to right, and he's decided he needs to just pull the shit out of everything, and sure enough, home run to left. This is the first piece of evidence we have that Jose Bautista knows more about hitting than I do, but even though it is but a single datum I think we should treat it seriously. 

KS

Blue Jays 5, Royals 3: Poor KC

just a plain old foul ball but a neat photo imo

Despite lacklustre performances thus far from a few key players, the Toronto Blue Jays sit tied atop the American League East with the New York Yankees, each team with a record of nine wins and six losses; the Kansas City Royals, on the other hand, trail every other team in both leagues with their three wins and twelve losses (0-9 at home!), a mark that puts them in a statistical tie with my butt. All the evils that have befallen the Royals have been deserved, kind of, because it is all about totally dumb choices, but they still make you sad, a little.


But only a little, really, in all honesty. Most of my baseball feeling energy today was devoted to appreciating yet another bosslike performance from Ricky Romero who allowed only two runs on five hits in eight excellent innings of work, and had the infield not botched a big double play, that line would have been choicer still. But whatever, that's fine. On the offensive side of things, no single Blue Jay really stood out with the stick today, but it was nice to see Bausista walk a million times, which augers well, I think. He's struggling, but at least he's not just hacking up there, right? Stay selective, bro; stay selective. Tip of the cap to Brett Lawrie for scoring on a double steal today, a way better play than the attempted straight steal of home on an 0-2 count and the bases loaded and two outs and Jose Bautista at the dish that's right nobody will ever forget that you tried to do that that one time Brett Lawrie.


So tomorrow night it's Brandon Morrow, in whom I have no confidence, taking the hill against Bruce Chen as the Blue Jays go for the four-game streak that obviously I am totally up for, but at the same time it would not break my heart if the poor dumb Royals finally got a win at home, because I realize we are all just people, trying to be happy. 


KS

Blue Jays 9, Royals 4: Two Home Runs from Colby Rasmus, of All People

hey alright

This was a good one, with some back-and-forthery and a bunch of home runs and the somewhat surprising Major League debut of Drew Hutchison, who wasn't terrific or anything but left in the sixth inning with the lead and ended up the pitcher of record in the win, so good for him. What would be really cool right now though is if Jose Bautista would stop trying to pull literally every pitch for a minute: he gets into these runs where that's all he does, and he jerks everything foul, and it sucks. But he'll figure it out. I'm not actually worried. It's weird that the guy who is the best hitter in the AL over the last couple years is a dude with constant mechanical issues he totally needs to stay on top of, and has these pretty lengthy stretches where his timing is all messed up and you can totally see it. Like, I'm not being a dick here; Bautista talks about it himself. He manages to be the raddest guy and also in some ways a pretty flawed hitter. He is fantastically compelling!


KS