Baseball in the Daytime: Prolonged Putrescence

I imagine there are two sides to every shirt coin, and a Royals postponement is likely no exception. On the head's side, the old "Hey, at least we didn't lose" phrase gets tossed around. On the tail's, it's "Ah, now we just get to lose twice in one day." I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this club with Los Angeles and Texas in town for the week. Intuition tells me it should be real darn ugly. When Kansas City traveled to meet the two teams, they saw an opportunity to get their first sweep of the season floundered by Professor Farnsworthless in game three of the series against Texas in April. The following month, they were outscored by a total of five runs through three games in Anaheim, including Zack Greinke's first loss (a 1-0 final) of the season.

After giving up three consecutive leads in three consecutive eighth innings against Tampa Bay over the weekend, I would expect the Angels and Rangers to send Kansas City into their first double-digit losing streak of the season. This will only make the music tougher to face as Royals General Manager Dayton Moore is supporting Manager Trey Hillman (Editor's Note: I agree with said support 115 percent, and am certain that bone-headed Sports TalkRadio idiots will spend all day parading the reasons to fire him around again.), veteran outfielder Jose Guillen is putting some of the blame on himself, wise old sage Joe Posnanski shrewdly illustrates that pointing the finger at the injury bug is no excuse, and Royals beat writer Bob Dutton indicates that there will likely be no bullpen shakeup.

I think all of that is great. I really do. I support Moore supporting Hillman. I'm glad Guillen is focusing on his own underachievments. I'm thankful for Posnanski to point out the injury perspective. Well, actually, I'm just thankful for Posnanski. And why bother trying to make roster changes to fix the bullpen. They had a bump in the road. A really, ugly, two-month bump in the road. They'll get through it. And once all of this is behind the club, the team's brass needs to hire the pictured-above guy as their consultant, as his statistical analysis is first-rate, and clearly needed. Oh, and viewable here.

Should be an interesting second half. Details on the first half of the tilt, after the jump.

Los Anaheim @ Kansas City, 4:10 Central: The matchup on the hill consists of a pair of veteran right-handers. For the visting team it's Ervin (Black) "Magic" (Woman) Santana; for the home club, Sir Sidney Ponson. Santana's career numbers include a 53-42 win/loss record, 4.57 E.R.A. with a 241:614 BBs to Ks ratio. The Ponsonator, on the other hand, is 91-111, 5.00, 601-1023. The Royals' losing ways have somehow kept them in fourth place in the A.L. Central, while LA's recent win splurge has pushed them into first in the West, two and-a-half games over the Texas Rangers. As to where to find the game, you're on your own as the DirecTV, XM schedules either haven't been updated, or don't plan to carry it. Bruce Chen and Sean O'Sullivan will be your starters in game two.

I guess it's reverse-psychology time. Go Angels.