Apportioning blame in the game of baseball can be a messy affair. There are too many moving parts, too many little moments, too many hypotheticals that make the whole exercise a fool’s errand.
But sometimes the windows line up just right, sometimes the numbers appear, and you’re left with an undeniable question. For instance: Where would the Royals be this season without the pitching of reliever Joakim Soria?
It is, not doubt, an unfair query on some levels, but it was impossible to ignore after a 5-4 loss to the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night, a defeat in which Soria contributed to another bullpen collapse.