Oops, all losses: Kansas City digs deep to drop sixth straight in the desert

Recaps here at Royals Review are an interesting thing. Yes, we’re here to provide contextualization and show highlights. But we primarily write game threads and recaps to be digital water coolers around which our community can congregate. We don’t have the same ability to ask postgame questions to Mike Matheny. You want that, go to the Kansas City Star or MLB.com or The Athletic.

So, dear reader, allow me to make a confession: I did not watch this game. I, instead, watched some anime and practiced guitar and had a snack. It was a lovely evening. For those of you who did watch the game, it was less of a lovely evening, going kinda like this:

The big story of tonight’s game: the Royals blew a lead, twice, Kansas City had a 3-2 lead but coughed that one up only until they scratched their way to a 6-3 lead which still wasn’t enough. It ended 8-6 in favor of the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, Cal Eldred and Mike Matheny still have their jobs, as does Dayton Moore, the guy who orchestrated all of this like the student conductor who thinks he’s hot stuff but the rest of the musicians can’t stand when he’s on the podium (which, of course, the conductor is oblivious to).

MJ Melendez was on fire today, which is great to see. He hit a honker of a home run! Let’s watch that.

In the sixth inning, he almost hit his second homer but settled for a rocket double that scored two.

Hunter Dozier had a pair of walks, which was nice. Santana and O’Hearn combined to get on base once, which was not nice but par for the course.

But I’m not going to talk about the game any more. Instead, let’s have a very important discussion here: you don’t have to watch the Royals. If you want to, fine! Baseball is cool. Sports are cool. They’re on most evenings.

However, please don’t feel like you must watch this train wreck of a baseball team. I promise you that you are not winning any brownie points with the organization and it’s not making you more of a fan. The Royals don’t inherently deserve your money, but more importantly, they don’t deserve your time, which is arguably our most precious resource.

As I Tweeted, I chose to have some snacks, hang out with my cats, watch some anime (takt op.Destiny, a classical-music-meets-magical-fighting-action show), and play my guitar (an Epiphone Les Paul Standard, which deserves a better player but I’m all it’s got). Then I started writing this. It was a good evening!

If you’re sick of the Royals, go learn to play an instrument—maybe pick up that dusty clarinet or trumpet or whatever. Read a book. Go out and see a movie. Take a walk under the dimming evening light. Sign up for an online class. Whatever. Enjoy yourself. If the Royals aren’t doing it for you—if even reading our posts here on Royals Review isn’t doing it for you—you shouldn’t need to feel shackled to the team.

Until next time.