For four days at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals were outclassed by one of the worst teams in baseball. For seven innings on Friday, they almost took down one of the game’s best pitchers. For another night, their once impenetrable bullpen was pierced in the late innings.
Perhaps this is an apt summation of this 2016 season, a campaign that had trafficked in the uneven, a year that, at times, just hasn’t made much sense.
The Royals were once unbeatable at home. Now they are utterly vulnerable. They once appeared poised to stage a final run entering a home stand against Oakland and Chicago.