Dress rehearsals over for Chiefs and roller-coasters envy Royals: time for a KC Replay
How’s it been going for the Kansas City Royals? Allow us to illuminate through select statistics.
Their big offseason pitching acquisition has an ERA so clean and shiny (2.25) you could eat off the darned thing ... and he’s 0-1 through 16 innings spread across three starts.
Their star catcher has belted two homers in a game twice ... and they managed to win only won one of those games in which he did.
You get the idea. It’s going ... not so great. Not absolutely terrible, but certainly in the realm of “could be better.”
This is where we tip off the weekly KC Replay, our every-seven-days laundry list of primo sports headlines in and around the City of Fountains. Buckle up, comrades, because we start on a roller-coaster.
Royal pain in the ...
Suffice to say it’s been a frustrating start to the season for the Royals and their patient fan base. And that’s probably an understatement.
They won their first two, then lost five straight. Then won a couple more, then lost again. Or something like that. Worlds of Fun only wishes it had a roller-coaster this wild. Actually, scratch that. They’re Kansas Citians, too, and it’s highly doubtful any BBQ-loving Kansas Citian could enjoy much of anything about the way the early part of the Royals’ season had gone.
The Royals’ young men (and older ones, like Greinke, the 38-year-old star pitcher referenced at the top of this screed) went west Friday to open a series in Seattle against the Mariners. The M’s weren’t exactly lighting baseball on fire, either, so the Royals were no doubt looking to make some hay.
Current keep winning
For a second-year club that went 3-14-7 in its first NWSL season, the Kansas City Current sure seem to have this soccer thing figured out.
They improved to 3-1-1 through five Challenge Cup matches last weekend with a 2-1 win against the Houston Dash at Children’s Mercy Park — midfielder Victoria Pickett provided the 80th-minute game-winner. The next group-stage match for the Current is at 4 p.m. Sunday against Chicago Red Stars in KCK.
Sporting, Sporting, Sporting
We kept thinking Sporting KC was too good to keep going like this, but the losses kept piling up. Entering Saturday’s home match against the Columbus Crew, Sporting was an anemic 2-6-0.
A couple weeks ago, manager Peter Vermes cited poor mentality as the prime suspect following a blown lead and 2-1 home loss to Nashville. Then they went to LA and led again, only to end up falling again, 3-1.
Through eight MLS matches, Sporting had scored no more than one goal in a game and was off to its worst start since opening 1-6-1 in 2011. The season’s still young. They’ll turn it around ... right? They’re too good to keep going like this (there, we said it again).
Feeling a draft, Part I
Besides the playoffs, and the season opener, and probably the start of training camp and of course the Super Bowl, one of the best times of the year for Chiefs fans is the annual NFL Draft. (Admittedly, most of the year is good times for the Chiefs these days. They aren’t your father’s Chiefs, after all.)
GM Brett Veach sure seemed to be in a good mood on Friday when he met with the media to discuss a meandering range of team-related topics ahead of the 2022 draft in Las Vegas, which starts Thursday and continues through Saturday.
Heck, why wouldn’t he be in a good mood? The Chiefs will be operating from a position of enviable power this week as bearers of 12 draft picks and, oh yeah, Patrick Mahomes under center.
“We’re excited to add talent on both sides of the football,” Veach said. His aim this week? “Work the draft and get younger and get deep.” With a dozen picks, that should be doable.
Feeling a draft, Part II
To the surprise of perhaps no one, a couple more key Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball players are flying the coop: power forward David McCormack and small forward Jalen Wilson are making themselves eligible for the NBA Draft alongside fellow KU star and graduating senior Ochai Agbaji. Wilson is an underclassmen and McCormack a senior who is eligible to return for an additional season granted by the NCAA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unless they pull back their names from consideration, which they’re allowed to do unless/until they hire an agent, McCormack and Wilsoh will go out on top. Kansas stormed to the national championship in New Orleans earlier this month with a 72-69 title-game victory over North Carolina.