KC Royals miss an opportunity with Saturday loss

Even 16 hours after the last bottle of champagne popped, the carpet in the visitors’ clubhouse squished a bit as the Royals prepared for their encore.

The day after clinching a playoff spot and generally partying like it was 1985, the Royals said all the right things. The celebration was fun, but now they focused on business. Still so much to accomplish. Securing at least a wild card spot was nice, but they had bigger goals. They could still win the division, for instance.

It all sounded great. The Royals, as a group, passed the Say The Right Thing Test. And then — the night after earning the franchise’s greatest opportunity in a generation — the Royals missed a much smaller but still significant opportunity with a 5-4 loss to the White Sox on Saturday.

Danny Duffy lasted just two-plus innings, the shortest healthy start of his career, and the offense threatened in the eighth and ninth innings before falling.

“We definitely let one get away,” says Eric Hosmer, who grounded into a double play in the eighth inning.

This is a misdemeanor, at worst. With the fading A’s losing (again) to the Rangers, the worst the Royals can do is play host to the wild-card game on Tuesday. So the night after securing a playoff spot, the Royals secured a home playoff game. Kansas City’s biggest sports party in years is coming to Kauffman Stadium. So even with a loss, the Royals take a step forward.

But this could’ve been so much more. The Tigers, somehow, were blown out by the last-place Twins for the second consecutive night. A win against the White Sox would’ve put the Royals into a first-place tie with the Tigers, and the division title under their control.

They can still win the division, but only with a very specific and unlikely conspiracy of three events: a win on Sunday against the White Sox, the Tigers losing again (they have David Price pitching against Kyle Gibson), and then the Royals winning the so-called Game 163 on Monday in Detroit.

By the way, before we go any further here, it’s worth pointing out that Jason Vargas should and most likely would pitch Game 163 in Detroit. The alternative would be pitching James Shields on short rest, something he’s only done once in his career (giving up four runs in seven innings). Pitching Vargas in Detroit would mean that, worst-case scenario, the Royals would have Shields on full rest to pitch Kansas City’s first playoff game in a generation.

But, no matter what happens, let’s be clear. The Royals owe no apologies. The mild disappointment in missing a better chance at the division title is more a statement about how far they’ve come than any sort of indictment on one game out of 162.

It’s impossible to say how much of Saturday’s loss is because of Friday’s well-earned celebration, and how much of it is the unpredictable twists of a baseball season. White Sox pitcher John Danks, who gave up just two runs over seven innings, has stopped the Royals all year.

The Royals have been remarkably resilient this season, and by their standards, losing Saturday does not even count as something to bounce back from. They will come to the ballpark today saying the right things, feeling good with Yordano Ventura starting, and knowing that if they don’t win then all of this talk about the division is meaningless anyway.

They are the team that will be remembered for pushing this franchise back into the playoffs, no matter what. And on Saturday, even in a loss, they found out they will have a playoff game in front of a packed and rocking Kauffman Stadium, no matter what.

But at least until the game starts, it’s worth acknowledging that they also missed an opportunity here.

This story was originally published September 28, 2014 at 12:37 AM with the headline "KC Royals miss an opportunity with Saturday loss."