That was a true team loss tonight, a franchise loss.
Ultimately, all there really is to say, is that when games like this one become routine, your baseball team is unacceptable. When the fans were booing in the eighth, I think many of them were booing the entire situation, as opposed to just one bad inning. We have a once in a decade talent on the roster, an extremely likable guy who seems to want to be a Royal, and the organization can't even field a .500 team around him. The offense can't score more than two runs against one of the worst starters in the AL, and the bullpen can't get two outs before the game is tied. Yea, losing on a bizarre bunt single-walk-single-"double" that was a double play ball-walk to a dead guy-walk rally by the opposition is pretty bad luck, but sometimes bad luck is deserved.
You can write off a bad lineup to the team's budget and the fact that we're supposed to be rebuilding. The Royals however, if Dayton Moore was who we thought he was going to be, should always have a decent bullpen. Bullpens are entirely about fungible talent finding, and money is really not an issue. If Moore can't build a bullpen, that literally means, at this point, he cannot do anything with a Major League roster.
Yes, I know the Royals had a little mini-winning streak going, and those games even included some ok relief work. However, the Greinke starts simply mean more to us, and as long as the Royals are a last-place team, that is perfectly legitimate. We aren't booing a bad inning, we're booing years, decades really, of incompetence. Tonight's game... makes me feel a level of betrayal and just raw anger. At this point, only the Greinke starts cause that for me anymore. The stupid trades, the weird losses, the bad signings, those things are closer to an intellectual annoyance, and sometimes, in an odd way, they're even a little fun. So much of what the Royals do is either entirely predictable (Scotty Pods! Kendall's second year, etc) or entirely unpredictable and borderline insane. You can laugh at those things. However, I don't laugh about Greinke starts. I want too much for the guy. Tonight's 8th inning was a familiar disaster that reminded me of a blowup at the end of a bad marriage.
Take it away guys:
- J. Rupe relieved Z. Greinke - J. Wilson struck out swinging - I. Suzuki reached on bunt single (ok, annoying, but whatever)
- C. Figgins walked, I. Suzuki to second (more of the same)
- F. Gutierrez singled to left, I. Suzuki scored, C. Figgins to second (whatever, singles to decent hitters happen)
- R. Tejeda relieved J. Rupe (was the plan to bring in the WORST option possible?)
- J. Lopez doubled to pitcher, C. Figgins scored, F. Gutierrez to third (worse case scenario this was an out, if not a double play, terribly bad luck)
- K. Griffey Jr. walked (awful awful. we are not even totally sure Griffey is still alive. his electronically simulated limbs have hit nothing but weak groundballs all year, and we walk him)
- B. Chen relieved R. Tejeda
- E. Byrnes ran for K. Griffey Jr. - M. Bradley walked, F. Gutierrez scored, J. Lopez to third, E. Byrnes to second (glad Chen could get involved. why worry about keeping the game tied? easier just to blow the game and let Chen pitch a mop up inning in the 9th.)