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While the heady days of a 10-7 start are staring us in the face, things were much bleaker just 365 days ago.
On this date last year, the Royals lost to the Toronto Blue Jays by a 4-1 scoreline. It was the final loss of the opening season homestand that saw the Royals lose every single game. Ten games. Ten losses.
Revisit this lineup for a moment. Remember the slow start for Alex Gordon? The times Chris Getz would bat leadoff? Eric Hosmer's struggles? (Wait, we still have that.)
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | Pit | Str | WPA | WPA+ | WPA- | RE24 | PO | A | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Getz 2B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .296 | .741 | 14 | 11 | -0.057 | 1.54 | 0.069 | -0.127 | -0.7 | 2 | 2 | 2B,SH |
| Alex Gordon LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .177 | .588 | 14 | 11 | -0.257 | 2.07 | 0.000 | -0.257 | -1.8 | 4 | 0 | |
| Billy Butler DH | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .290 | .817 | 14 | 9 | -0.131 | 1.26 | 0.000 | -0.131 | -0.9 | |||
| Eric Hosmer 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .203 | .704 | 12 | 8 | 0.117 | 1.04 | 0.172 | -0.055 | 1.0 | 9 | 0 | HR |
| Jeff Francoeur RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .246 | .620 | 12 | 9 | -0.063 | 1.06 | 0.030 | -0.093 | -0.4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mike Moustakas 3B | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .286 | .851 | 27 | 19 | 0.010 | 1.18 | 0.119 | -0.109 | 0.2 | 3 | 4 | 2B,GDP |
| Brayan Pena C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .286 | .739 | 15 | 9 | -0.100 | 1.50 | 0.082 | -0.182 | -1.0 | 4 | 1 | 2B,GDP |
| Mitch Maier CF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .192 | .707 | 12 | 8 | -0.149 | 1.05 | 0.000 | -0.149 | -1.2 | 2 | 0 | |
| Alcides Escobar SS | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .310 | .838 | 9 | 3 | 0.178 | 1.06 | 0.178 | 0.000 | 1.4 | 3 | 5 | 2B |
| Bruce Chen P | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Aaron Crow P | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Jonathan Broxton P | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Team Totals | 33 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .273 | .779 | 129 | 87 | -0.452 | 1.31 | 0.650 | -1.103 | -3.5 | 27 | 13 |
Hey! Hosmer and Mike Moustakas each collected a pair of hits. And Hosmer hit a home run. Bruce Chen gave up two home runs, accounting for three Jays runs. Jonathan Broxton allowed another run in the ninth.
The streak would reach 11 games before the Royals broke the skid against the Indians. It doesn't seem like that long ago. Because double digit losing streaks are the things that haunt our souls.