Báez and Zobrist sink the Royals in 3-1 Cubs win in the rain

At this point in this dismal season for the Kansas City Royals, the recap for most games could simply read:

Fulfilling their destiny, the Royals lose this baseball game to a better baseball team.

That would tell everyone enough.

Since that feels like a modest cop out in a week following an off-day on Monday, here are the high- and lowlights:

• Ben Zobrist got a standing ovation in his return the Kauffman Stadium.
• There was a 22-minute rain delay.
• Alex Gordon made a nice catch, and Rosell Herrera gunned down Willson Contreres trying to stretch a single into a double.
• Hunter Dozier Cuthberted a baseball.
• Javier Báez hung serious dong on the first pitch of Kevin McCarthy’s night.
• The Royals managed ten baserunners. They plated one of them.
• Jakob Junis went five strong innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits and two walks while striking out eight and looking like he remembered what he was doing in April for at least one night of what’s become a season to forget.
• Of course that one run Junis did allow came across the plate when he uncorked a wild pitch with Ben Zobrist parked at third base.
• In addition to Báez’s dong, he made a spectacular grab and drove in another run with a double in the ninth, spending the night showing the unindoctrinated why there is a serious push for him to win the MVP.
• Drew Butera manned first base because when you can play a guy at first with a 51 wRC+ on the season on August 6 you have an obligation to do so in a noble effort to see if you can reach new levels of futility.
• Butera had a boner in the top of the ninth, depriving Whit Merrifield of a double play from center field when he flubbed the catch of what should have been an easy double play as Albert Almora Jr. had taken off on a pitch that Anthony Rizzo lined to center which Merrifield snared with plenty of time to get a retreating Almora.

The Royals lost 3-1. They’re still not good at baseball.

The loss drops the Royals to 44 games under .500 with a 34-78 record to match the Orioles for worst record in baseball. Their .306 winning percentage is BY FAR the worse in franchise history, and this was the result when Dayton Moore was trying to field a competitive team.

Go Royals.