KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After winning seasons the past two years, the Royals enter a season-ending six-game homestand at 67-89 and as one of the bigger disappointments in the league.
Simultaneously, the road to the American League Central title runs through Kauffman Stadium.
Following three games against the second-place White Sox, the Royals will end their season this weekend by hosting the division-leading Guardians for another three-game set.
“We want to ruin somebody’s season,” Royals catcher Carter Jensen told the Sun-Times. “We want to spoil it for somebody else. We’re obviously not going to be in the playoffs, but we want to be there. So if we can fill that spoiler role, I think it’s fun and we can show we’re not done fighting.”
Beset by pitching injuries that have seen both their opening day starter (Cole Ragans) and closer (Carlos Estevez) lost for the season, the Royals entered Tuesday losers of seven of their last eight. But with the emergence of young hitters like Jensen (.847 OPS since the All-Star break) and Jac Caglianone, Kansas City has an offense that’s allowed them to compile a 29-30 second-half record up to the final week.
With the Guardians entering Tuesday with a one-game lead and the Sox holding the season-series tiebreaker, the Royals can obviously affect the AL Central race, but also size up where they stand against the division’s best entering the offseason.
“Losing those pitchers, a few starting pitchers and bullpen pieces, it’s been kind of a revolving door,” Jensen said. “We’ve done a great job this second half of not caring who all is here. We’re just going to do the best with what we have.”
For their part, the Sox seem to understand that ending their season against two last-place teams does not equate to a cakewalk.
“We are so close to making a huge difference, not just for us but for the history of the organization,” said Miguel Vargas. “Accomplishing what we want is going to be hard. It’s not going to be easy.”
Vargas is AL Player of the Week
Vargas was named American League Player of the Week on Monday, after hitting .348/.500/.783 with three home runs from Sept. 14-20. It’s Vargas’ second time winning the award, with the first coming in May last year.
The timing makes the second time around sweeter.
“We treat this as a playoff game,” Vargas said. “Whatever we did in the past five months wouldn’t mean anything if we don’t make it.”
The Sox roster largely hasn’t been through a playoff chase before, but Vargas looks like he has the ability to raise his game.
“We’ve seen him increase his attention to detail,” said manager Will Venable. “He’s absolutely locked in right now. And I think it’s a response to where we’re at.”
Peters at the ready
Four days after a scary collision with a Rate Field outfield fence post, All-Star outfielder Tristan Peters is at “full availability,” though he was out of Tuesday’s starting lineup against a left-handed opposing starter.
“To give his body up to try and make a play like that speaks a lot to the kind of player he is, and being able to recover from that so quickly has been awesome.”
In Peters’ stead, Brenton Doyle homered in his first at-bat against southpaw Daniel Lynch IV on Tuesday.