Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
There have been times this year when the Kansas City Royals looked like one of the best teams in Major League Baseball. There have also been times when they looked like one of the worst. The streaky nature in which the Royals have played the first half of the season has left them several games out of first looking way up at the Detroit Tigers who are where they need to be. If they plan to get something done towards October this season, they need a long streak of the winning kind.
It is always frustrating when a team literally has all of the tools to put together a long winning trend but somehow finds themselves wallowing mid-pack and several games out of first place. Are the first place Tigers that much better than the Royals? Considering they have won three of the five head-to-head match-ups this year I would say no. They have also outscored them 21 – 17.
So why aren’t the Royals fighting for first place? Ah, who knows? The truth of the matter is that things just haven’t all come together at the same time. They get good pitching but don’t score runs or score a ton of runs on a great pitcher’s down night. Time is not nearly out for the Royals. One glance at the progress the Toronto Blue Jays made during their 11 game win streak can prove that. It’s pretty simple really. If the Royals want to make it to the playoffs, they will need to reel off a bunch of wins.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
