Jeff Passan

And this was before Detroit had gone into its complete free fall.

And since then, six game losing streak, a win, four game losing streak, two wins.

six-game losing streak.

And we've talked in this segment plenty, Curtis, about how a six-game losing streak is not...

entirely going to cross out a uh you know a playoff berth and a nine or a ten game losing streak that that's not disqualifying either like you can come back from those but when you stack losing streak on top of losing streak and and you have three four plus game losing streaks over a 19 game stretch

you're just putting yourself in a position to never be able to claw your way out of that.

And that's where I fear the Royals have put themselves right now.

You know, it's one thing to be back in the division.

It's another just to be 15 games under .500.

Because not only do you have to get, let's just say you get back to 500 and on the way, think about the number of teams that you're going to have to pass.

And, oh, by the way, there are still, even if you get back to 500, even if the Royals were to rip off a 15-game winning streak starting tonight, they would presumably still be behind the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians of the Central.

Like, there's just so much work that a team has to do that I have a difficult time at this point seeing that happening, which is a rough thing to say with 100-plus games left in the season.

No, and in the ways that they're losing, that's just the painful part.

It's, you know, it's blowing leads like, what were they up 6-4 on the Rangers?

And Lucas Ersing comes in, hit, hit, hit, hit, and all of a sudden that lead is gone.

And...

You know, when you're in a situation like the Royals are right now where you feel like you can't do anything right, finally you put a game together and there's some hits and there's some big moments and there's some solid starting pitching and it's like, okay, we're getting back on track right now.

And then one inning derails the entire thing.

As tough as that is,

everything you can to try and win a single game mentally it's just an absolute hunch to the nuts like how boy that's mixing metaphors right there but it feels like two losses it feels like because you've already got the wind marked down in your mind and then it's it's taken off then you get a loss it feels like losing two games