Get excited! It's baseball with the Royals!

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Back at it today. Hopefully we can right some wrongs, make some plays, and win this one. Not easy!

It will be with Kaz on the mound. He's been the worst pitcher on the staff the last 7-8 weeks or so. I cant believe A.J. is gonna stick with him b/c there are better options.

Why do i feel like we are already bounced from the playoffs?
I never felt like we were in the game last night. I don't know why.

Kazmir owned us when he was with the A's earlier this year, though, so he shouldn't be underestimated.

Because its funny - and the obvious truth. Which is why I cant believe how negative so many Royals fans were on the game 1 thread. The Royals, who are the best team in the AL, only lost one game - they get another chance today at home. The season is not over.

My shoes are still wet!

Must win game this afternoon.

Yep. If we even want a chance at moving on, Cueto has to go out there and deal.

Thats the only reason I think Hinch is starting him. Deal is, he's not the same. He's not even the same pitcher he was when he first joined the Astros. I bet he wont last 4 innings.

Because it felt like we were playing our 2014 postseason selves.

Huge game today.

Today is the reason the Royals traded for Johnny Cueto. If he pitches as he is capable of pitching and brings home a win, I think you can forget about/forgive the stumble in August.

Win today, and the series becomes manageable again. You're probably going down 2-1 in Houston in Game 3, with Keuchel on the mound, but with Ventura in Game 4 and Cueto again in Game 5, KC will be set up to put its best foot forward.

Side note, somewhat related to Cueto: I noticed a few pitches yesterday where Ventura seemed to be experiencing the same problem that Cueto had with Perez ... Perez would call for a pitch low-and-away, then not move his glove to that spot until after Ventura started his wind-up, with the ball ending up in the spot his glove was in before he moved it. Could be random, but I do wonder how many pitchers are bothered by that.

On pinetar press or royals review there was analysis showing the heart of the Astros order was very good at hitting curveballs, but way below average at hitting four seam fastballs. A lot of the singles in the first yesterday were against Ventura's curve.

Yep- lots of national critics are saying the Royals are in deep trouble. Royals just don't seem to play with any spark since the All Star break. Many think they will be swept in 3 games. :deevee:

Astros look better in every way. :(

I think expectations were unreasonable-we swept through the playoffs last year-and most did not expect them to come out and play like shit.

I guess we will find out very soon if they will start playing with some urgency and passion again.

Because we lost the exact same way other teams lost to us in the playoffs last year.

We don't have that small ball edge anymore. We're now the idiot team that tries to swing for the fences every pitch instead of just worrying about getting dudes on base pushing them along through bunts, sacrifices, and steals. And then we throw our arms up in exasperation when a good outfield catches our shit when we put it in play.

It's exactly why if Cueto isn't nails tonight, we're ****ing toast. Even with Kazmir's struggles, the Astros still have one hell of an edge both in play on the field and in terms of the Royals needing to win 3 of the next four..