Royals Report: Listless KC Looks Dead In Loss To Angels

The Royals lost their third game in a row after dropping Monday’s game to the Los Angeles Angels 6-2 at Kauffman Stadium. The KC Royals look like their season is in free-fall.

The Kansas City Royals fell to 48-50 after their 6-2 loss, and are now 8.5 games behind the Indians in the AL Central. The Angels improved to 44-55 and last place in the AL West.

The KC Royals are so bad right now, that they can’t even beat losing teams. Instead, the Angels scored four runs in the first inning off KC starter Ian Kennedy. Given the horrible performance of the Kansas City Royals offense in July, that pretty much meant the game was over. In their last 30 days, the KC Royals have scored 93 runs, which is the fifth worst mark in major-league baseball. By fWAR (Wins Above Replacement) the Kansas CIty Royals offense ranks dead last.

That’s pathetic.

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The KC Royals gave their fans some hope when catcher Salvador Perez broke out of his slump by hitting his 15th home run of the season with a man on base to cut the deficit to 4-2. However, the Kansas City Royals bullpen continued to fail this month when Brian Flynn and Chien-Ming Wang allowed single runs in the seventh and ninth innings. That extended the Angels lead to 6-2 and made a late-inning comeback unlikely.

At this point, the only phase of the game in which the Royals are playing well is in defense. Everything else has failed in July, which has been reflected in their 6-14 record in the month. Right now, the KC Royals look like a team that knows how to win, but simply don’t have the energy to get it done every night.

Two years ago, the Kansas City Royals had exactly the same record at 48-50. Both local and national pundits largely believed the KC Royals should become a seller at the trade deadline. Instead, Raul Ibanez helped his teammates believe in themselves and inspired a 41-23 second half run that won them the top wild card.

Their iconic comeback to overcome a four-run deficit to steal a 9-8 extra inning victory over the Oakland A’s in the wild card game inspired the Royals to sweep both the Angels and Orioles on their way to the AL pennant. They fell just short of winning the World Series by losing game 7 to the Giants in a 3-2 decision.

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The 2016 KC Royals just aren’t in the same situation. The roster is filled with salty post-season veterans who have won 22 post-season games in the last 2.5 years. I just don’t see the same untapped potential in the 2016 squad as the Royals had in 2014.

Maybe the KC Royals will fool all of us again after everyone has lost faith in them. I’m just not holding my breath.