The curtain comes down

An unsatisfying end to an amazing season.

The ending was unsatisfying. How could it be anything but? Once again the pitching was good enough to win, but Royals could not sustain an attack on offense. They fell in Game Four of the ALDS to those damn Yankees by a score of 3-1.

The journey, however, was a blast.

I wrote back in August that this team, these 2024 Royals, were probably the favorite club of my adult life. This wasn’t recency bias or just somehow overlooking the two-year run of success a decade ago. There was just something about this club. From the manager and the coaching staff and, hell, even the front office to the players themselves. This season was a rebirth of both the franchise and their relationship to the city. Those players…they did this. It’s easy to be enthusiastic about the future. Given what we’ve seen this year, we should be enthusiastic about the future.

On August 29, 2023, the Royals were eliminated from postseason contention. It was a formality as the team was on the way to an abysmal 106 losses. The 2024 season saw this team improve their record from the previous season by 30 wins. They qualified for the postseason. They won the first series they played. This year, their season ended on October 10, in front of 39,012 fans at Kauffman Stadium.

It was a wild ride.

In the first game of this ALDS, Royals starter Michael Wacha walked Gleyber Torres, the first batter he faced (which, we didn’t know it at the time, seemed to set a theme for this series). The next batter, Juan Soto, doubled. With runners on second and third and nobody out, Wacha wriggled out of the jam without allowing a run.

On Thursday in Game Four, Wacha was ambushed by Torres, who roped the first pitch of the game to center for a double. Two pitches later, he was crossing home plate as Soto grounded a single to right.

After that early hiccup Wacha was able to find a rhythm. He erased Soto when he induced Aaron Judge to ground into a double play. From that point forward, his changeup was absolutely lethal. Giancarlo Stanton led off the second with a double and Wacha fell behind 3-0 to Jazz Chisholm. The righty was able to battle back and finished off the confrontation with a pair of changeups down and out of the zone that Chisholm could not resist.

Through three innings, four of the nine outs that Wacha recorded, including both strikeouts, came on the change. He was mostly spotting the pitch down, but would work it in the zone early in the count which allowed him to catch hitters off balance.

In the fourth, Wacha allowed a leadoff walk to Judge. That threat was erased on another changeup, this one a double play grounder off the bat of Austin Wells.

Meanwhile, facing starter Gerrit Cole for the second time in the series, the Royals could not get anything to click. It didn’t help they were taking some really poor at bats. In the first, Michael Massey led off and got ahead 2-0. Then he started hacking at everything. Vinnie Pasquantino worked the count full and then watched a four-seamer go right down the chute.

The only hit the Royals had through the first four innings came from Tommy Pham who singled to start the third. He was erased on a fielder’s choice from Kyle Isbel. Isbel reached second on a ground ball off the bat of Maikel Garcia but was stranded there when Massey struck out again. This time, he went down on three pitches.

The Royals stung the ball in the fourth with Witt connecting on a fly ball that left his bat at 114.7 MPH. It was, according to Statcast, the second hardest-hit ball of the season for Witt. It was just a loud out. Pasquantino followed sending one 105 MPH off the bat for a ground ball out.

As the game progressed to the fifth, Wacha still had his changeup working. He recorded the first two outs of the inning on the pitch. The third out would prove elusive.

In between those outs, Wacha allowed a single to Anthony Volpe. Volpe was erased on a fielder’s choice from Verdugo but Jon Berti singled to move Verdugo to third. This was the bottom third of the Yankees lineup that was mounting this threat. And as the lineup flipped over for a third time, Torres had Wacha’s number once again, singling home the second run of the game for New York.

That would be it for Wacha, who probably left the mound in a Royals uniform for the final time. With the series and the season in the balance, Matt Quatraro summoned his closer Lucas Erceg from the bullpen. Erceg retired Soto on a flyball to end the threat but immediately jumped into the fire the following inning when Judge led off with a double. He would come around to score on a Stanton single.

I don’t know about you but I don’t need to see—or think—about Stanton for a long, long time.

The Royals showed some fight in the sixth. Literally.

Garcia led off with a single. Massey, up next, hit a grounder to first that Berti fielded right at the bag. He stepped on first for the sure out, then fired to second where the tag would have to be applied to cut down Garcia. Maybe there were echoes of Hal McRae in Garcia’s slide. It was a bit tardy, but nothing out of bounds. The shortstop Volpe seemed to take offense, though.

There is quite a bit going on here. Vople throws a forearm shiver into the neck of Garcia as he slides. Purposeful? I thought so. Apparently, so did Garcia who squared up Volpe immediately. Volpe, meanwhile, puts his glove back on Garcia’s chest as if to emphasize the tag had been made. If this thing deteriorated, my life savings would be on Garcia.

What happened next really escalated the whole deal. Volpe flips the ball over Garcia to Chisholm at third. That was unnecessary. He could’ve held the ball or moved to the side. Then he patted Garcia on the back three times as the Royals third baseman was walking toward the dugout. I guess it all had something to do with things posted on social media. Everything seems to start with social media.

At this point, the Yankees were winning 3-0. They were 10 outs away from advancing. And they had to start chirping. The whole kerfuffle seemed to get Cole out of his rhythm. In the aftermath, Witt laced a single to right. Pasquantino followed with a double on an 0-2 pitch. The Royals were on the board.

The wind was blowing in from right on Thursday at The K, the opposite of that jet stream that carries popups into the front row at new Yankee Stadium. It may have had an effect on two balls that were hammered by the Royals. In the fifth, MJ Melendez was challenged by Cole, who served him four-seamer after four-seamer. Melendez got up and sent one nearly 350 feet.

That would’ve been a home run in five parks.

Two innings later, with Pham on first who had picked up his third single of the night against Cole, Kyle Isbel turned on a four-seamer.

Isbel sent this one 370 feet. Soto went back to the fence. The ball—which would’ve been a home run in 24 parks—stayed in the yard. It was so close to tying the game. Instead, it moved the Royals closer to elimination.

After Cole dodged the bullet off Isbel’s bat, Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver picked up the final six outs. The New York bullpen pitched 15.2 innings in this series. They did not allow a run.

And just like that, it was over.

Perspective isn’t always immediate. It’s going to take a little time to properly frame the 2024 season for these Royals.

There will be a bitter aftertaste following this defeat in the ALDS. Even though the Royals were outsiders at the beginning of the season, they proved through the full 162-game season, plus the six games in the playoffs, that they were a dangerous team. They may have overachieved from the preseason projections, but once you get in the postseason, the expectations are reset. There are no guarantees in baseball’s playoffs. It’s a wide-open tournament format where the best teams and the favorites hold no true advantage. The Royals had as good a shot at winning this series as the Yankees. That’s where the disappointment lies.

Yet the bummer of October should not override the pleasure of watching this team play all summer long. It was a fantastic, unforgettable ride.

The boys played some ball. And it was good.

As I close my 20th season writing about these Royals on the internet, a heartfelt thank you to, you, the readers. I remain appreciative of those of you who subscribe, read and comment. Your support means quite a bit. It was an honor—and a helluva lot of fun—to share this season with you.

I’d like to say something like “I have big off-season plans!” but I really don’t. I’ll just continue to wing it as long as you still open the emails. Thank you for reading.

Let’s go Royals.