KC Royals: Ten Best Games So Far This Season
Kansas City Royals left fielder Alex Gordon (4) is carted off the field after an injury against the Tampa Bay Rays in the fourth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
Royals VS Rays: July 8th at Kauffman Stadium (Royals won 9-7)
The Kansas City Royals were up two games in their four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. All they had to do was take one more game and they’d win the series.
With a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning, Alex Gordon ran after a fly ball, crashed into the wall, and landed awkwardly. Gordon remained on the ground while Logan Forsythe scored an inside-the-park home run.
It was a scary moment to see Alex Gordon carted off the field because the injury looked pretty bad, and more importantly, Gordo is the Royals’ leader. You know he’ll leave the field on his own will if he can so that’s when fans assumed the worst.
That inning continued to be a bit rough for Jeremy Guthrie, as he gave up two more runs and the Royals then trailed by one. This was the moment where Royals fans were thinking, “Oh great. Things were going our way, but now Gordo’s gone and we’re screwed”.
Wrong.
Jarrod Dyson made a beautiful play (very Gordon-esque) to throw Brandon Guyer out at home. The boys in blue later went on to score five runs in the fifth inning, one of those being an inside-the-park home run by Dyson. Dyson was definitely the next man up in this game, and it’s safe to say that the Kansas City Royals wouldn’t have won this game without him.
It would have been easy for the Royals to just crumble without their leader Alex Gordon, but they didn’t. They stood tall, fought, and came out victorious. The Royals did all of this against Rays ace Chris Archer, who has had a very solid 2015 season.
Now this game did get a little scary in the ninth when Joe Blanton was put in with a five run lead. Blanton looked awful and eventually in came Greg Holland to stop the bleeding and notch the Royals’ 49th win of the season.
This game was awful in the sense that the Royals lost Alex Gordon, who we later learned had left due to a groin injury and is slated to miss eight weeks, but this game makes this list purely for the fact that the Royals went out and won this game for Gordo.
They showed they were still warriors and put up nine total runs on the scoreboard. In fact, this game would have ended as a blowout had Joe Blanton not gotten an invitation to the party.
Still a great game, and we obviously wish Alex Gordon a speedy recovery.
Next: The very next day