Kansas City Royals: Kindly Put The White Flags Away

Call it the All-Star Game curse for the Kansas City Royals.

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Since it was announced last week Royals’ players were racking up all-star votes like Hank Aaron did home runs, Kansas City has won a grand total of one game.

During that time the Royals have fallen all the way to second place, and sit a seemingly insurmountable one half game behind the juggernaut Minnesota Twins.

Royals Twitter was full of fans who are ready to give up on this team, or feeling like that is what the team is already doing.

Yes, 1-6 is a rough stretch, but this is not Walt realizing Hank discovered what he’s been up to rough.

Now, no one can expect a fan base to be happy when a team loses six of seven, but honestly, it will be ok for this Royals’ squad.

They were the best team in baseball during the postseason (yes, team because without MadBum, San Francisco doesn’t even make it to the World Series), and they were the best team in baseball for the first six weeks of this season.

Every team — even a good one — goes through slumps.

My favorite memory of this happening is the 2000 New York Yankees. My hatred for that team was at an all-time high, and it lost seven games in a row to end the regular season. Speculation was high that this team was falling apart at the worst possible time .

All they did was go 11-5 in the playoffs and win their 748th World Series title.

So, if you are a Royals’ fan currently threatening to never go to a game again, or talking about how they can’t compete with this great, er, overrated Twins’ squad, simply take a deep breath, count to five, and remind yourself Mike Pelfrey, and his 59-72 career record, has been their ace.

His 4-2 record and 2.59 ERA have as good a chance of keeping pace as the Royals do of playing .142 baseball the rest of the season.

However, it’s true Salvador Perez might swing at a pitch in the first-base dugout right now, and the Royals’ offense in general lately has been paying homage to the 2009 squad.

Wade Davis even gave up a run!

So yes, there is reason to sit on your couch and binge eat Cheetos and feel sorry for yourself, just not reason enough to sell your season tickets for a family size bag of them just yet.

For some frame of reference, here are the longest losing streaks last season for 2014 playoff teams.

American League

Kansas City Royals — 5

Oakland Athletics — 5

Detroit Tigers — 5, (six-of-seven, and seven-of-eight)

Baltimore Orioles — 4, three times

Los Angeles Angles — 4, twice (three to end the season)

National League

Pittsburgh Pirates — 7, (12-of-15 during a separate stretch)

San Francisco Giants — 6, twice (17-of-23)

Washington Nationals — 4, twice

St. Louis Cardinals — 4, twice (8-of-10)

Los Angeles Dodgers — 3, three times

As you can see, every playoff team struggled at some point, and the one that struggled the least lost in the Division Series. The most glaring stat of the bunch is that the World Series winners lost six games in a row twice, and 17 of 23.

The worst streak the Royals have had this season (which was last week) is four in a row, but they are mired in a 1-6 slump. In addition to realizing that all teams go through this, what makes this slump easier to swallow is that the Royals still have one of the best records in baseball at 29-20. Only the Cardinals, Dodgers, Astros and Twins have been playing better ball since Opening Day.

However, Kansas City now has to face the reigning Cy Young award winner Wednesday in Cleveland’s Corey Kluber. After a rough start, Kluber is 3-0 with a 1.40 ERA his past four starts.

As crazy as baseball can be sometimes, we’ll probably see KC rough him up for six runs in two innings to bust out of the slump.

If so, all will be right with the Royals.

Funy thing is, even if they lose, it will be as well.

*All stats courtesy of ESPN.com

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