Its hard to imagine that we're hitting game #95 tonight, it seems like only yesterday we we're watching the Tigers pound the Royals at the K to open the season. We've followed 61 losses since, but also been gifted with 32 wins mixed somewhere in between. For a few weeks before the All-Star Break, it was actually quite fun to be a Royals fan; although since the Break that's changed.
Tonight the Royals look to get back on track (or is it untracked? I never know) against the Orange County Angels. I liked the Angels better when they gave love to all of California, despite the fact that they we're strongly associated with SoCal and there are three four other teams in the state.
The Royals send Jimmy Gobble (3-3, 4.50 ERA) to the mound as the team's good luck charm. Gobble's brought value to the team as a reliever in the middle innings, but has slipped towards replacement level as a starter. Not that league-average filler is a bad thing, in fact, if you think about it, half the world should aspire to average, however insulting it might be in the short term. For the Angels its Ervin "Magic" Santana (11-3, 3.88 ERA) their representative of the new league rule that each team must have a "Santana" or "Peralta" on the roster. Santana has 87 strikeouts, which must seem like 200 in the minds of the Royal pitching staff.
The Royals have lost sight of 63 wins as a reasonable goal, and need to run off a string of wins to bring a non-100-loss season or non-worst-record-in-AL as viable goals.