I believe it was Grudz who pointed out over the weekend that the sweep reaffirmed our claim to being the worst team in baseball. A 38-73 record carries a significant message, like being 9 games behind everyone else in the American League, and 4 games behind the Pirates.
Think about this: over the four games, the lowest run total the Twins managed was consecutive 8-run performances on Thursday and Friday; while the highest total the Royals had were two 5-run games.
I'm not smart enough to explain that further, but over four games, thats something of a feat.
Yesterday Joe Nelson turned a close game into a laugher, raising his season ERA from 1.11 to 2.84. Still, its hard to blame him really, as only Welly really pitched well, and even then, he really didn't, he just got lucky and escaped through 2 innings.
For the morbidly curious, we've now gotten 9 innings out of Odalis Perez, which could be thought of as just one game, in that imaginary game he's allowed 7 runs, 12 hits, walked 4, struck out 5 and given up 2 home runs. Something of an uneven performance I must say. I guess he's been technically OK in avoiding walks, but the K totals are low, and since his first inning as a Royal, he's only struck out 3.
So after a lost weekend at the K, we're now projecting toward a 56-106 record, which would match last season's memorable run at history. This time we'd likely have the distinction of playing in a much tougher environment in the AL Central, but perhaps that hurdle is over-considered, given the cheap wins everyone gets off us anyway. I leave that analysis to Buddisimo Bell in his post-season debrief with Dayton Moore.
After weekends like this one we need to return to the cheap solace we earned by posting a .500 July; namely, we may be awful, but we won't be the worst ever.
Futility Watch: Through 111 Games
2003 Tigers: 29-82
1962 Mets: 29-82
2006 Royals: 38-73
ROYAL PRIDE!