Losing a Series to Texas is Embarrassing

I haven't written anything for awhile now, but can you really blame me? The Royals have lost 10 of their last 13 games, and today they wasted another solid pitching performance by Zack Greinke to drop a 2-1 decision to Sidney Ponson and the Texas Rangers. Yes, I repeat, Kansas City was held to one run by Sidney Ponson, and the loss allowed the team with the worst record in baseball to take two of three games in the series.

I'm embarrassed to call myself a Royals fan right now. If you take a look at the banner of this blog -- yes, the thing at the top of the main page -- this is one of those days where I need to commiserate.

This team's offense is horrid. Just plain awful. Kansas City ranks last in the American League for runs scored with 101. That's an average of 3.61 runs per game. Guys like Greinke just have to be frustrated. He should be 5-0 right now. And, when the Royals do break out and score a bunch of runs, like the nine they scored in Wednesday night's loss to the Rangers, the pitching falters.

Kansas City opened the season with the pitching staff looking like it was going to be pretty darn solid. But it was a small sample size, and we all should have known it wouldn't last. I feel foolish for having been excited about the team's two-point-something earned run average at one point. Now, pretty much all the team's ERA's except for those of Greinke (1.47), Ron Mahay (2.03), and the Three Amigos -- Joakim Soria (0.00), Ramon Ramirez (0.71), and Leo Nunez (2.38) -- have swelled to greater than 4.00.

The thing is, though, even at 12-16 the Royals aren't buried in the standings. Thanks to the 6-2 start to the season, Kansas City finished April at 12-15, and they're currently three games out of first place. But if they continue to stink things up by losing series to teams the realistically should beat, there will be much more grumbling coming from this Royals fan.