A new ray of hope?

With the Royals sweep of the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend, they earned themselves a new ray of hope for a successful season. With the state of the AL Central, a solid contending season is still within their grasp, but they must continue their winning ways these week against the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals. Anything less than 4-2 in this stretch would be a dissapointment, particularly given the Royals past success against the National League.

This week should bring some big crowds too, with Greinke T-Shirt Tonight tomorrow, the special "throwback price" day on Wednesday, and the Cardinals series over the weekend. Of course, for that, a good portion of the crowd will be Cardinals fans.

Slip sliding away...

Some thought that the heroic comeback in Tuesday's game would lead to a surge in momentum. Instead, it's done the opposite.

On Wednesday, the Royals blew a 4-2 lead and couldn't get anyone to score with the bases loaded and no one out in the 9th.

On Thursday, the Royals bullpen managed to blow up entirely, losing what was a 3-2 lead when Zack Greinke left the game. The Royals lost 8-3.

Finally, last night, the Royals looked inept vs. the Cardinals.

Now, after being above .500 since April 28, when they were 10-10, the Royals are now back at that mark at 21-21. The season is far from over, but the signs are not looking good at this point.

An amazing ninth...

In what was reminscient of their finish on Opening Day 2004, and Exhibit A of why you don't leave reasonbly close games early, the Royals took what was a sure-fire nonchalant loss against one of the game's best pitchers in Cliff Lee and turned into one of the most thrilling victories in Royals history.

With 1 out in the bottom of the ninth, the Royals were down 5-2 to the Indians, facing Kerry Wood. Then this happened:

Home Run Mike Jacobs
Home Run Mark Teahen
Walk to Miguel Olivo
Mitch Maier pinch runs for Olivo.
Triple by David DeJesus
Sacrifice Fly to Right by Willie Bloomquist

Final: Royals 6, Indians 5

Kaw & Border was there to see it, too.

Welcome to "Royal Intent"!

Sports spinoffs seem to be catching on among political sites. First it was RealClearPolitics.com, which published RealClearSports.com. Then it was the conservative grassroots site RedState.com, which published RedState Sports, although that is not currently operational.

Recently, we have been considering some posts regarding the Kansas City Royals but did not want to clutter up the main blog with sports-related news and commentary, taking away from the core mission of that blog.

As such, we created Royal Intent, an aptly-named spinoff keeping in tradition with our namesake, the famous TV drama. What this site will be is a source for news and information and commentary regarding the Royals play on the field as well as front office decisions off the field, including the new Kauffman Stadium and other things that impact a fan's experience at the game. This spinoff blog's activity may or may not be frequent, but we thought it was worth a try. There are many other great Royals blogs in the area, so why not join the crowd?

We hope you enjoy -- and Go Royals!