Royals Report: KC Continues To Implode With 2-1 Loss In Texas

The Royals lost their third straight game to the Texas Rangers, dropping a 2-1 decision on Saturday night in Arlington. The KC Royals are now 7-18 and are in complete free-fall.

The Kansas City Royals fell to 49-54 with Saturday’s 2-1 loss, and are now 11.0 games behind the AL Central leading Indians. The Rangers improved to 61-44 and extended their lead to 5.0 games over the Astros in the AL West.

To put it bluntly, the KC Royals have demolished their playoff hopes with a terrible July. At this point, it’s clear that general manager Dayton Moore needs to sell off his short-term pieces to prepare for the 2017 season, but with injuries to Luke Hochevar and wade Davis—along with Edinson Volquez‘s rough outing on Friday—he doesn’t have much talent to move.

The Royals even gave starter Ian Kennedy a rare early lead by scoring a single run in the first inning after Alcides Escobar opened the game with an infield single, Cheslor Cuthbert singled to left, and Lorenzo Cain advance the runners to second and third on a ground out. Escobar scored on Eric Hosmer‘s grounder to second.

Against recent trends, Ian Kennedy pitched Very well on Saturday night. He lasted 7.0 innings, allowing 6 hits, 0 walks, and 1 earned run with 6 strikeouts. He left the game tied 1-1.

However, the Rangers tied the game on Elvis Andrus‘ triple to open the third inning and he scored on catcher Bobby Wilson‘s single to tie the game at 1-1. The Kansas City Royals and Rangers swapped zeros until the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, when first baseman Mitch Moreland blasted a solo home run off reliever Brooks Pounders to win the game for Texas.

At this point, the KC Royals are going to lose if the game is close. Most Royals fans were waiting for the hammer to fall as the game remained tied late in the game. Right now, the Royals are like baby elephant seals lying helpless on a beach just waiting for a hunter to come along and bash their heads in.

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On Saturday, KC Royals manager Ned Yost admitted that the last two long seasons with World Series runs has sapped his team of energy. Add in a string of injuries, disappointing performances from players like Alex Gordon, Chris Young and free-agent signings Ian Kennedy and Joakim Soria, and you have the train wreck that is the 2016 Kansas City Royals.