KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ In the modern era of baseball, in the age of 30 teams and revenue sharing and expanded playoff formats, the only thing more difficult than winning a championship is doing it again.
The 2016 Royals have learned this the hard way, of course, internalizing the reality over a brutal 162-game season. They know it all by now. They know that injuries can suffocate an offense, and statistical regression is inevitable, and bodies will wear down, and that luck _ however you judge it in the confines of baseball _ will even out over time.
They understand it now. They know this is why only one franchise (the Yankees) has won consecutive World Series championships in the last 20 years, and that only four have gone to back-to-back World Series. They know, in some ways, they have already beaten back precedent and history by raising two straight American League pennants above Kauffman Stadium.
For two straight seasons, the Royals played deep into October, a run that began with an improbable and cathartic victory over the Oakland A's in the 2014 wild-card game. For two straight postseasons, a franchise beat the odds. At some point, of course, you knew that the karma would snap back. But maybe they weren't ready for it to all happen at once, over four dismal days at Kauffman Stadium.
On Monday night, the Royals began an eight-game homestand against those same Oakland A's, preparing to stage one final charge toward October. By late Thursday night, they had suffered through one of the worst four-day home stretches in franchise history, the final shock coming in a 14-5 thrashing inside Kauffman Stadium.
Across four days, the Royals (74-72) were outscored 43 to 12 by an A's team that had put up just 41 runs in its last 15 games. The carnage included a 16-3 loss on Monday, a bullpen gaffe on Tuesday, a shutout on Wednesday and an annihilation on Thursday.
The Royals set a franchise record for the most runs allowed in a four-game set, surpassing the previous record of 41, surrendered against the New York Yankees in 1998 and the Minnesota Twins in 2006.
It was, in all areas, a systematic beatdown, the last, labored breaths of the defending World Series champions. In the moments after this loss, the Royals were not yet officially eliminated from postseason contention. But with 16 games remaining, a four-game sweep at the hands of Oakland removed any pretense of one more improbable run.
Rookie Hunter Dozier recorded his first big-league hit during a five-run burst in the ninth inning, doubling to left field. Christian Colon hit his first big-league homer, hammering a baseball out to left. And that was basically it.
Starter Edinson Volquez, who started Game 1 of the World Series last October, punctuated a woeful 2016 by allowing eight earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He was decked early and often, and when A's third baseman Ryon Healy tattered a three-run homer to left in the third inning, the Oakland lead had stretched to 6-0.
The baseball rocketed an estimated 480 feet, according to Statcast, clearing the Water Spectacular in left-center and landing in the first row of seats near the Miller Lite Fountain bar. In the history of the ballpark, few men had hit a baseball to that spot. As he stood on the mound, Volquez tried to push forward. But the onslaught would only continue.
If you are looking for areas of regression _ places where the 2016 Royals could not measure up to their predecessor _ you can find them many places. The run production had dwindled _ Kansas City entered Thursday 14th in the AL in scoring. The bullpen has softened at the back end. The injury bug turned into a rash after a couple years of relatively clean health.
But then there is Volquez, who has emerged as something close to the personification of regression in 2016. A season ago, he posted a 3.55 ERA in 200 1/3 innings, emerging as a rock-solid presence in the middle of the rotation. On Thursday, his season ERA hit 5.40, which ranks third worst in baseball among qualified starters.
For the Royals, it was just one more bad number in a sea of them. After four days at Kauffman Stadium, the lights appeared to be fading on the defending world champs.
