Royals lose more ground in 7-2 loss to White Sox

If the playoffs is what you were signed up for, you might want to start making alternative vacation plans for October. The Kansas City Royals lost 7-2 on Friday night in what will ultimately become another ho-hum loss in a season that had a few too many.

If Seattle holds on to their lead over Oakland, then the Royals will slip into fifth place of the teams on the outside looking in at the AL Wild Card. New York is currently beating Tampa, the Orioles lost (yay!) to the Tigers (Oh.) while the Astros lost to the Cubs.

It's not that the math doesn't necessarily work out in Kansas City's favor. It is the volume of factors that conspire against them. Having to leapfrog four teams for a shot at a one-game playoff is a tall order for any team, regardless of their mettle or moxie or whatever you want to call it.

Yordano Ventura was in and out of trouble all night. The kindest thing you can really say about his performance is that he managed to finish seven innings. No small feat for the man with small feet. He gave up ten hits and two walks though, yielding five runs (four earned) in a game that had the feeling of micrometers mattering more than inches. Ground balls finding holes, Jose Abreu recording an RBI on an infield single. You know, one of those games.

Peter Moylan didn't do anyone any favors, yielding two runs without recording an out. Granted, both runners came around to score by the time he had hit the showers, but he yielded the baserunners to begin with.

Scott Alexander pitched and allowed the inherited runners to score, because you can't spell inheriscotted alexanderuns without Scott Alexander.

Kevin McCarthy made his major league debut, so that was a fun thing to have happen on the road in mop-up time.

Kendrys Morales had two RBI in the game, a bully single in the first to give the Royals the early advantage.

Whit Merrifield pinch hit for Raul Mondesi. That feels like a thing that shouldn't happen. Well, if only because it never, ever, ever happened with Alcides Escobar. Who was nowhere near the prospect and got handled with a particular air of, "He's got to learn to do it, so...{shrug}"  Alex Gordon went 1-for-4. Alex Gordon's glove stole more hits than that.

Kansas City will look to even the series tomorrow, as Edinson Volquez (10-10, 5.02 ERA) will take on old friend Jimmy James Shields (5-17, 6.07) who has fallen so far so fast that his beard basically walked off the job.