No, this will not be a post professing my undying love for all thing Mark Knopfler. This will, however, be a post reflecting on the terrible times Royals Nation finds themselves in. They were just outscored 23 - 4 in a four game series with the Blue Jays; and while I'd be the first to admit that the Jays have a formidible pitching staff (I do, after all, proudly own both Halladay and Marcum in my life-consuming keeper league), 23 - 4 is completely unacceptable. They've been swept by Boston and Toronto in successive four-game series--both teams appearing to be much better than the Royals in the process. Trey Hillman had to sit the team down before the game with a closed-door meeting, electing to skip batting practice.
Now they take on the Twins, and while it may seems as though facing the trifecta of Nick Blackburn, Livan Hernandez, and Kevin Slowey could be what they need to break free from their worst stretch of this still young season, it could be that this season finally seals the season as being finished. Before their flight to Boston, the Royals sat a game under .500 and 2.5 games out of first. Now they're half a game behind Detroit, occupying the familiar cellar, facing the lower end of a divisional rival's rotation (neither Blackburn nor Hernandez possess WHIPs of less than 1.41, and Slowey has not been lights out by any stretch of the imagination, having given up 3 ER in each of his starts leading up to his last one, where he shut the mighty Tigers down for six innings).
Maybe the friendly environs of Kaufmann Stadium will wake their bats from their seemingly season-long slumber, and the Royals will take the series, regaining some confidence and momentum. But if this eight-game losing streak extends to eleven games and beyond, hope for competing would seem to have evaporated, much like the water in the fountains at the K if the continue to lay dormant for much longer.
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While I'm in defeatist-mode, I'm going to pile on with a bold dive this evening into the much-maligned "Southland Tales". If I do not post within a week, write me off as being dead.
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