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Many of us complain about the Royals routinely, me included. We lament their offense, their mediocrity, their management. The Royals aren't a terribly good team, and that's incredibly annoying.
But, man, the Diamondbacks are really bad, aren't they?
Arizona stands in fourth place in the NL, sporting a lovely 49-64 record, and possess the worst run differential in the NL at -88. Paul Goldschmitt and AJ Polluck, their best position players, are out with injuries, and after those there are only 4 players who have accumulated 1 WAR. On the pitching side of things, it's even worse, as their best pitcher has 1 WAR. One. I'm at least glad that the Royals have left this level of horror.
In fact, Kansas City has gone on quite a bit of a rampage, winning 10 of their past 13 games, and climbing to half a game back from the Wild Card spot. Though they face Oakland again in a 4-game set along with the San Francisco Giants, they face a very soft schedule at the end of the month with a combined 14 games against the Twins, Rockies, Rangers, and Indians. It's entirely possible that they could be in control of their own destiny in September, but they have to continue playing well.
Here's the lineup for today:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Cadillac Desert Lineup: Aoki 9, Infante 4, Perez 2, Butler 3, Gordon 7, Cain 8, Moustakas 5, Escobar 6, Ventura 1. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/royals?src=hash">#royals</a></p>— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/McCulloughStar/statuses/497144138140110848">August 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Gordon fifth again! Yay! Because reasons!
Anyway, the Royals face starter Josh Collmenter today. Collmenter has been quite mediocre this year, but that essentially makes him the Diamondbacks Ace of Staff. He's having a bit of a down year, with an inflated ERA and FIP compared to his career average, corresponding to his drop in strikeouts. Considering how good the Royals hit in the desert, even Cy Collmenter may not dent the Royals' current streak of good games.
Or not. You never know.