The Royals face the Blue Jays tonight having not yet won a home game. Luckily we’ve only played six, but a six game home losing streak (and seven games overall) is something that certainly appears to be worrying. I think, however, that this is a very different losing streak to the ones that have derailed us in seasons past.
My reason for that thought is that we have been in these matches, especially those against the Tigers. The Tigers have been almost universally tipped to win the division and we could have won at least two, if not all three, games. Most importantly, though, we fought hard in all three. They are certainly the better team and if we had simply been swept (ie, without it being part of an extended losing streak) I don’t think there would have been any complaints with the performance. We made a very good team work hard for nine innings in three games, it is hard to ask for more than that.
The three losses to Cleveland were rather worse affairs, but three games will not ruin a season. We did not play well in those, the pitching especially disintegrated for no clear reason. Whilst neither are reasons for undue concern (and I am not unduly concerned) it does mean that we need to win the series against Toronto, preferably starting tonight. If we play as well as we did against Detroit I think that will happen. The important thing will be for the players not to panic and start pushing too hard. There was some discussion in the last few games that they may already be doing that, so I think the biggest job for Yost and the coaching staff will be to keep the players calm. Do that, and I think it will be a comfortable game tonight.
Defensive Indifference 