Any realistic Kansas City Royals fan knows the end is near.
Though they had plenty of chances to get back in the race in August and September, the Royals ultimately did themselves in with a 3-8 stretch beginning on Sept. 7. Sitting at 76-77 entering play on Friday, they’re as good as toast in a rapidly tightening American League playoff race.
In fact, Friday could easily be the day the end comes, if just two simple outcomes come to pass.
The team holding the third and final AL Wild Card spot right now is the Boston Red Sox, who have had a rough patch of their own in September. But Boston is still 13 games over .500 (83-70), and defeated Kansas City 4-2 in the season series.
That means if the Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday and the Royals lose against the Toronto Blue Jays, Kansas City’s playoff hopes will officially be kaput. The “tragic number” for Kansas City to be eliminated sits at two, so with nine games to play, it’s all over but the crying.
To illustrate how different things could have been, when the Royals began a series with the Cleveland Guardians last Monday, they were 73-70, and the Guardians were 72-70. Cleveland took three out of four from Kansas City, including an absolute heartbreaker in the series finale, and hasn’t lost since, putting them only 1 1/2 games behind Boston.
Fangraphs gives Cleveland a 25.3% chance to make the playoffs entering Friday, while the Royals are at 0.0%. When that four-game series between the two squads began, the Royals were at 12.2%, and the Guardians were at 7.5%.
Needless to say, it’s been a disappointing year for the Royals, who also guaranteed they would finish this season with a worse record than a year ago with that loss to Seattle on Thursday. Injuries took their toll, especially on the pitching side, but plenty of teams suffered similar misfortune.
There’s no one to blame but the Royals themselves, and a long offseason of “what’s next?” is staring them in the face.
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