Royals Stick to Mission: Better 2013 Draft Pick in 8 - 5 Loss in Cleveland

The quest for a better draft pick continued in Cleveland this evening. Having spent the last four games screwing over the dirty Pale Hoes by getting swept against the now-division-leading Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals are in the process of executing their subversive master plan: Get Better Draft Pick. Having now dropped six in a row since being eliminated from the playoffs, there can be no argument. The Royals are losing, and they're losing with an elan that must be envied.

Despite accidentally scoring first when Adam Moore (who clearly isn't in on the plan) drove in Salvador Perez in the top of the second, the Royals still found a way to accomplish what had previously been believed to have been impossible; they lost after scoring first. Will Smith wasted little time getting the Royals back on track, yielding six earned runs while succeeding in getting pulled without recording an out in the fourth inning. Bolstered by Smith's efforts, Everett Teaford let an inherited runner score and then gave up two of his own runs in the fifth inning, bringing the Indians run total to eight runs.

Having deemed Cleveland's 8 -1 lead too big for even Chris Perez to blow--and we all know Chris Perez blows--the Royals were granted permission to score runs again. Billy Butler hung fantastical dong with Alex Gordon having singled to lead off the sixth, causing some fans to wonder what might happen if every game started that way. Of course, those fans are jerks and are not nearly close enough to the dirt to understand matters that would require time-consuming education. Gordon and Butler would be in the thick of a smattering of run scoring when Gordon again led off the eighth with his third single of the night. Butler followed with a double to left, and then Salvador Perez drove the two in with a single. That single would prove to plate the last two runs the Royals would score, assuaging The Powers That Be of any concerns about the Royals tanking it and bringing them closer to passing Toronto and Boston in the 2013 draft order.