An Eighth Inning Rave Broke Out

Just stay close enough to get to the bullpen. That’s what fans of basically every team facing the Royals all season have said in the early innings if things weren’t going as they had hoped early on in the game. This series against the A’s has made us realize that Buddy Bell was right. Never say it can’t get worse. If you’re an A’s fan, that’s probably not fair because you can’t be worse than the actual worst. But for the Royals, the bullpen that makes us nervous every time that gate opens has nothing on what the team in green has to deal with every night.

So just stay close enough. Seth Lugo wasn’t very good last night, but he made it through six innings to keep the Royals’ uneven bullpen out of the game for as long as possible. When it was 5-1 A’s after five innings, I had it in my head that if they could just get it to 5-3 once the bullpen got involved, they could win it. They did make it 5-2 in the sixth on a Vinnie Pasquantino home run. It turned out they wouldn’t even need that to do enough to turn another frustrating game early into a third straight win against the A’s and a fourth straight win overall. There’s plenty to talk about, but the eighth was a party. You might even call it a rave…a John Rave. I’ll get to him.