Royals Report: Back To Losing After Friday The 13th Ends

4) You Know You’re Running Bad When You Lose To Bad Teams

It was bad enough losing three out of four games in New York against the Yankees when they came into the series at 11-18. The Yankees weren’t hitting until slapping around Kansas City pitching for nine home runs and 25 runs in four games.

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It’s even worse when you lose to the Atlanta Braves, who pretty much gave up on the season before it even began. Oh yeah, and they were 8-26 coming to Kansas City on Friday.

Coming home was supposed to cure what ailed the KC Royals. For one day, on Friday the 13th, it looked like that narrative might play out. Then they lost 5-0 in a dispirited game on Saturday.

Losing teams almost always look bad. Observers like to use descriptions like “lazy”, “listless”, or “heartless”, which imply that the team is losing because they just didn’t care. Usually such depictions aren’t at all accurate, and are more about how fans are feeling about the team rather than anything going on inside the dugout.

It’s not that fans are ignorant, or are fickle, or stupid. It’s that we usually come to the game seeking an emotional experience and thus relate to the game with our feelings rather than our reason. I mean really, who pays 50 bucks a ticket (or more) to THINK about things?

So when the team disappoints us, we react emotionally and can lash out against the players we admire. That doesn’t make us bad fans. That makes us normal.

Next: Silver Linings