It might seem that the lackluster effort put forth by the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals on Monday night could be chalked up to their late-night — check that, early-morning arrival in DFW on Monday after their marathon game on Sunday Night Baseball in Detroit.
The Royals won that game in 10 innings, but it featured a rain delay and caused the team to not get into DFW until the dawn hours on Monday, just hours before they began a series in Arlington against the Rangers.
But history says, that's not usually how it works. In fact, it's usually two days after the late night when it comes back to bite a team, meaning the Rangers could be in for another blowout win on Tuesday. Of course, it helps matters that the Rangers are trotting Nick Martinez out to the mound, but the Royals might not pose much resistance.
If the Rangers can somehow take the first two games of this four-game set against the Royals, it'd be a huge boost coming off a successful road trip that saw them sweep the hottest team in baseball and knock the Astros off the pedestal of "best record in baseball."
It could also make the Rangers get greedy and go for their first home series win of the year, or even another sweep. A split in this series against one of the best teams in the American League would be good enough, but why stop there?
