A KC Royals Special: The anti-Boston breakdown

A 6-3 West Coast road trip brings the KC Royals back to Kauffman Stadium with a spring in their step and a puncher’s chance of contention. If they keep up the momentum against Boston, the calls for buying rather than selling will become louder. But can they keep it up is a very good question.

Top Five Reasons to (Choose Your Own Adjective, it could be positive or negative, don’t let me influence you) Boston and the Red Sox

Since 2000, Boston-area teams have won 10 championships among the Big Four sports. New York—the city that Boston always seems most yoked to when it comes to sports—has won three. You are not hard done by anymore, Boston.
To that end, you’ve become what you always despised in the Yankees—the team that spends more than everyone else rather than building an actual team. Your opening day payroll was about three MacBook Pro’s short of $200 million.
Racism = not okay. I think we all know that.
You gave away Babe Ruth and kicked of the most despised dynasty in sports. You’re culpable.
Having said all that, the Red Sox have given us some delightful personalities over the years. The late Jimmy Piersall. Oil Can Boyd and his doberman. Bill Lee, the Spaceman. The Idiots that won the 2004 World Series. Interesting failures (as the Sox were for many, many years) are always more fun than boring mediocrity.
(Also, Boston is a truly fascinating city with many historical landmarks. And bars, including one where NFL Hall of Famer’s will buy you a round of drinks if you go on the right night. Um, not that I’d know or anything.)

Opponent Most Likely to start a Brawl

I mean, Matt Barnes drove almost 100 miles to beat the crap out of Derek Fisher once in…

(quick Google)

Oh. Wrong Matt Barnes.

Well, as long as Chris Sale is not that far removed from cutting up jerseys and displaying generally bizarre behavior, I suppose he can have this spot.

History of Bad Blood with the KC Royals?

None, really.

Boston Player of Whom Much Was Expected and Less Was Produced?

This team is almost exactly what you would think it should be—young studs (Andrew Benitendi, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts), overpays (Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval), grizzled vets (Dustin Pedroia) and talent all over. I don’t guess David Price has quite worked out like they were expecting, but it’s still pretty early in his Boston tenure.

KC Royals Player Most Likely to Light Up the Red Sox?

Alex Gordon! Gordo is a lifetime .327 hitter against the BoSox with 22 (!) doubles, seven home runs and 31 RBI. He’s also got a .390 career BABIP against Boston, so a regression to the mean may be in order, but I don’t want to cramp anybody’s style. Do your thing, Alex Gordon.

Will this series be fun?

It should be! The KC Royals still possess a run differential comfortably in the negative… and yet you don’t have to really squint quite so hard to see a path to not only respectability but challenging the Indians for the division.

(Made this point on Twitter Sunday afternoon. Unbeknownst to me, Indians fans are overlooking the KC Royals.)

Next: The Other, Normal Series Preview

But after a successful road trip, with a prime road team (the Red Sox are typically ticket-sales magic, although that can be troublesome) in the house, hopefully Kauffman Stadium will be packed with KC Royals fans.