KC Royals Will Not Collapse Like the 1964 Phillies

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Friday , the KC Royals lost to Detroit. Salvador Perez‘ late minute heroics got the Royals to extra innings, but Greg Holland imploded to take the loss. Still, with a recent rough patch for the Royals (and Cueto up and down), some of the fans are getting nervous about whether the Royals can win their division or not. Presently, the Royals have gone 7-12 this month.

The huge (good news) from Friday is that Cueto was not only pretty good, but even more importantly, he was getting more comfortable with Perez. According to Andy McCullough of the Star, Sal also agreed to something Cueto requested: change his positing behind home plate and lower his glove to set for Cueto a better target. If the two get in sync, which is usually required, we may see the old Johnny.

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Ned Yost said, “There’s some things that we’ve done to adjust to help Johnny. I think in terms of Salvy with a lower target, he’s just a big guy. The thing with Johnny is he has a real knack for throwing straight to the target. And fully understanding where he wants his targets.” He also said, “They finally got together this week on the side session. Salvy went down and caught his side sessions and Johnny showed him exactly where he wanted him to set up and how he wanted him to set up. It was good. They both came away from it feeling really, really good.”

“There are some dynamics there,” Yost said. “Getting to know the league, getting to work with a new catcher that at times can be a little difficult until they both get on the exact same wave length.”

Their remaining season looks like this: one left @ Detroit (69-78), their last day off, three home games with the Mariners (72-77), three home games with Cleveland (73-74). They finish with seven on the road with a makeup game at Wrigley (Cubs 87 and 61), then they cross the city for three at White Sox (70-77). The Royals then close with three at Minnesota (75- 73). Four games are with teams with a winning record, and ten with teams with losing records–14 total.

The Twins have one with the Angels Sunday. In their game on Thursday, the Twins blew a first inning five run lead, giving up six runs in the second, eventually using six pitchers in the 11-8 loss. After the rain out On Saturday, the Twins lost a crucial double header: 4 to 3 in 12 and 5 to 2. With the Twins one game out in the wild card and the Halos two out in the wild card, the next three games should be highly competitive. The Twins are battling the Angels

After that they have three with Cleveland, three at Detroit, are at Cleveland for four games, and finally three at home vs. the Royals.

Is the great year going to end in tragedy with the KC Royals not winning the Central? Well, right now, the Royals are 11 games up on the Minnesota Twins. With the final series in Minnesota, the question is whether the Royals will be on top of the division at the end of the regular season?

Is it even a possibility? Will it be glory or will it be a melt-down like the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies? Do the Royals have the same flaws as the Phils?

Next: A trip back in time

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