It was late April, and the Royals’ manager of the moment sat inside a dugout and watched another loss against a division rival. All the old maladies surfaced.
There was zero timely hitting, and growing pains from a young player, and a starter running into trouble in the middle innings. And when it was over, the manager retreated to his office, sorted through the piling wreckage and tried to offer a verbal pat on the back.
“They're playing the game extremely hard,” Ned Yost said. “They're all trying to break out of this slump. We're trying to get them to try easier.