111 and Done

Last year in order to be able to have a chance to purchase possible World Series tickets (which fortunately ended up happening), my friend Jason and his brother Tony collectively bought a package of tickets for this season.  Jason wanted to take me to one of the games, and tonight was the night we planned.  The Royals are continuing their amazing run that started last year about this time, and they are 22 games over .500 and dominating their division.  They are further ahead of the 2nd place Twins than all other division leaders are ahead of their second place teams combined.  They have the best record in the league (trailing only the Cardinals in all of baseball).  Making the playoffs is essentially a forgone conclusion at this point, which is a crazy thought for a team that, before last year, went 29 straight years without making the playoffs!  A huge part of their run is based on the success of the bullpen.  Herrera, Davis, and Holland, along with Madson, Medlen, Hochevar, Morales, and Young make up the best bullpen in baseball, and one of the best of all time.  If the Royals have the lead in the late innings, they are nearly guaranteed to win.  In fact, the all-time record in the history of baseball for winning games in which a team leads after 7 innings is 115 straight games (the '98-'99 Yankees).  The Royals are at 111.  Well, were at 111.  Tonight, Ned Yost left Volquez in a bit too long, and he gave up a few runs, and the Royals lost 7-4, ending the second-longest streak in the history of baseball.  So I did get to see a historic event, but not the type that I was hoping for.  Still, it was a whole lot of fun to be there with Jason, and this one game won't derail the Royals' fantastic season.