Look on the bright side, Royals fans: we won’t be thinking “gee, that 11-game losing streak really sunk our playoff hopes because they played pretty well outside of that,” because the Royals have decidedly not played better outside of that streak. Baseball-Reference puts the Royals’ playoff odds at 0.3% now, which, if anything, seems high. It’s hard to imagine a realistic scenario in which the Royals not only play well enough to make the playoffs, but play better than the teams ahead of them to leapfrog them in the standings.
I’m not gonna lie; I am extremely frustrated at the Royals right now.