KC Royals: Five Most Painful Losses In Royals History

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Oct 29, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; San Francisco Giants fans celebrate on the field after defeating the Kansas City Royals during game seven of the 2014 World Series at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports /

The KC Royals are enjoying one of the best spans in club history the last two seasons, winning the American League pennant two years in a row for the first time, and their second World Series title. But that success has reminded me of the most devastating losses in club history.

I limited my list to five since, really, who wants to dwell on the negative? Perhaps I might have taken some kind of masochistic pleasure in a long list of failures a few years ago as an opportunity to snark at what appeared to be a never-ending pattern of stupidity. However, after the Royals have won two AL pennants and a World Series title in the last two years, such an article would make me look like a bitter critic that can’t enjoy success .

That being said, I still think it’s worthwhile to look back at the failures from the past. At this point, I think it will help keep us humble in case the 2016 season falls short of the recent past. The other benefit is it will remind all of us just how exceptional the comeback wins from the 2015 post-season really were.

Pulling off one, or two, late inning rallies is great. Wiping out five leads where the Royals had less than a 10% chance to win, and seven with less than 25% (according to ESPN’s win probability metric) is nothing short of outrageous.

I doubt we’ll see another run like it anytime soon.

Hopefully, the Kansas City Royals are in the midst of the long run of success that general manager Dayton Moore hoped to create when he came to Kansas City from Atlanta in 2006.

Next: October 9, 1976

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