Royals Report: Indians Sweep KC To Demolish Playoff Hopes

The Royals lost their third straight game on Friday, losing 5-2 to the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. The loss all but eliminated Kansas City from playoff contention.

The Kansas City Royals fell 77-76 with their 5-2 loss on Friday night. KC remains five games behind the Orioles for the AL’s second wild card, but they only have nine games remaining in the season.

The KC Royals fell behind 2-0 after Jason Vargas gave up a solo home run to Jason Kipnis and an RBI double to Carlos Santana in the first inning. However, shortstop Alcides Escobar countered with a two-run shot to dead center field in the second.

Vargas finished hos four inning outing with the game tied 2-2, allowing 5 hits, 1 walk, and four strikeouts. Dillon Gee relieved him, but gave up a three run home run to Carlos Santana.

That blow put the Indians in control of the game. Their relievers, unlike Kansas City’s recent bullpen struggles, closed out the game without much incident. While it is easy to point the finger of blame at the bullpen that has blown six late-inning leads in September, we must remember that the KC Royals offense ranks 14th in major league baseball in runs scored. With little margin of error, the offense set their pitchers up to fail.

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At this point, the Kansas City Royals would pretty much have to win all of their remaining games and get the five teams ahead of them to simultaneously suffer poor finishes. There are only so many miracles that one team can pull off. I think Kansas City has pretty much used up all of theirs in the last two seasons.

That leaves KC fans in the recently unfamiliar position of playing meaningless games. Manager Ned Yost should play rookie Hunter Dozier and recent acquisition Billy Burns to see what he has going into spring training of 2017. I’d like to see them play Raul Mondesi as well, bur not at the expense of benching Whit Merrifield.

I must confess, a post season without a deep playoff run seems very very dull compared to the two last two Octobers.

Next: The Cost Of Losing Lorenzo Cain In September

Here’s to getting back to the World Series in 2017.