The Royals took the lead early, and seemed to have everything under control after they regained that lead in the fifth, squeaking out a run, for a 3-2 game. Brian Bannister on the mound, nothing to worry about, right? Well in every baseball game there is a 7th inning stretch. After the Royals produced no runs in the top of the 7th, they had no idea what was about to happen. They were greeted with a long shot off the bat of Helms against Bannister, with 2 on in the bottom of the inning, losing the lead and sending Bannister to the showers. The bullpen gives way to Mahay, who proceeds to enter the game and give up a 2-run shot, still in the dreaded 7th inning. Not good. A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
This loss ends the 5-game win streak that the Royals were riding so high on, and now is when teams show their grit. How will they respond this, and learn from it, instead of concentrating on the 5-game win streak, take one game at a time, and forget the past, you can’t change that. Instead concentrate on each performance, and try to prevent the same mistakes from happening in each event, hopefully increasing your change of victory every step along the way. There we have it.
This brought the clubs record to 20-22 for the year, and drops them to only 2 games out in the Central. Tomorrow is the rubber game between these two teams, and the hang over of today’s lose, that ended that wonderful streak.