Kansas City Royals: What went wrong in 2017 season

(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

WHAT WENT WRONG IN 2017 – AWFUL START

In 2015 when the Royals won the World Series, they were hot right out of the gate. They won seven straight games and that already put them in a great position moving forward, even if it was just one week into the season.

If there was any indication that 2017 wasn’t going to end like 2015, it was the first game of the season. The Royals looked competitive behind a Danny Duffy start, but it all came crashing down after Duffy left the game, as the bullpen, once a dominant force in Kansas City, imploded right before our very eyes.

The Royals ended the month of April with a 7-16 record.

The Royals would go on to get swept by the Minnesota Twins in the first series of the year to begin the season at 0-3. Considering the Twins had lost 100 games in 2016, many fans were already hitting the panic button after that terrible series.

Kansas City would right the ship in Houston, winning two of three games against the Astros, but things got sour again in a hurry. They returned to the K with a 2-4 record and then lost a series to the Athletics in embarrassing fashion.

The Royals ended the month of April with a 7-16 record and the postseason seemed like a pipe dream, even that early on in the season. The team would rebound and eventually capture a winning record for a period of time, but it’s hard not to blame the Royals’ awful start for why they didn’t accomplish their goals in 2017.