The most frustrated Royals clubhouse of the season fills with all of the contradicting emotions you would expect from a group with a champion’s past and an also-ran’s present. Mostly, silence. Some guys smile and joke with a teammate’s young son. A few f-bombs are screamed.
Belief persists in this room, because four weeks remain and they have pulled off the impossible so many times before. But that belief is now strained past the point of reality for many fans, and tested harder in this room than they are comfortable with.
They lost to the Tigers 6-5, a horror show plot on an otherwise beautiful Sunday afternoon that left them four games out and behind four teams for the second wild card spot.