(Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sportsports)
Retired KC Royals manager Ned Yost often used the phrase “one of those nights” to downplay his players’ and teams’ worst moments. He protected them that way; rarely did he openly criticize.
But even Yost might have struggled to minimize, at least publicly, the disaster that befell his successor’s club in Baltimore Wednesday night. What happened can’t be dismissed as one of those nights, or even one of those things, that happen in baseball.
No, this was simply an unmitigated disaster, a sudden one-inning catastrophe that destroyed a wonderful pitching performance from a Kansas City hurler who needed one.