Royals Report: 3 Things About Crash In Cleveland

The KC Royals dropped the first game of their 10-game road trip, blowing their first late-inning lead in 2016 to fall 5-4 to the Indians in Cleveland Thursday night.

The Kansas City Royals appeared poised to extend their winning streak to seven games, heading into the bottom of the ninth inning with a 4-3 lead over the Cleveland Indians. However, manager Ned Yost didn’t want to use closer Wade Davis three days in a row and turned to Joakim Soria—who had not given up a run in his last 9.0 innings.

Soria then  allowed Cleveland to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to blow Kansas City’s first game after holding a seventh inning lead. I guess this is how other teams feel watching the KC Royals snatch away games with late rallies.

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It sucks.

Of course, we Kansas City Royals fans were once very used to such collapses since they were a regular event during the team’s Dark Age that lasted from 1986 until 2013’s 86-win season. However, after winning two straight AL pennants and 22 playoff games in the last two seasons, this is a fanbase that has become a bit spoiled by success.

Baseball is game that keeps you humble. With a 162 game schedule and an anything-can-happen playoff structure, it’s almost inevitable that even a championship squad will suffer multiple bad days. On the bright side, the KC Royals offense extended its streak to 10 straight games with 10 or more hits.

On a more personal note, I’m sorry I didn’t get this post up earlier. I got caught up in a Texas Hold’em poker tournament that ran late and crashed the moment I got home.

On to my, belated, observations about Thursday night’s game:

Next: Paulo Orlando