Royal(s) expectations

The SJI Class of 2016 covering White Sox at Royals.

There are 162 regular season Major League Baseball games for every team, every year. That's nearly twice as many as any other major American sport. If you don’t follow the MLB, the games can seem meaningless, and even if you do, sometimes they can lose their luster day after day. But the Kansas City Royals, one way or another, always seem to keep it interesting, and reward the fans who stick around. In the last two days, the middle of a four-game series against the White Sox, the Royals have come back from a four-run and a six-run deficits late in games. On Saturday afternoon, minutes after losing their World Series MVP catcher Salvador Perez to injury, the Royals completed the largest ninth-inning comeback in Royals history with hit after hit until the White Sox were down and out. The comeback is the latest in what has become an expectation for some Royals fans. After all, there was a reason the Kauffman Stadium stands remained full as the team headed into the ninth inning with a six-run deficit on Saturday: at this point, they know exactly what the Royals can do.

They learned it when the Royals scored seven runs in the last two innings to beat the Astros in game four of the American League Divisional Series in 2015. And again in the American League Championship when they scored six runs in the seventh and eighth to win 6-3. Then again in the World Series, as they scored in the ninth inning to go to extra innings before walking off in the 14th inning. Late-game comebacks have become a regularity for the Royals, and a part of their identity. When it’s the Royals, even when they’re down six runs with two outs to go, it’s never really over. Somehow, they’ve made regular season baseball easy to enjoy in Kansas City. -- Christian Hardy