When it was suggested a week or so ago that Royals fans may want to enjoy this dicey and fickle season while it lasted and that this has the makings of an intriguing team, an anonymous reader left a dissenting phone message.
"Let's give these poor Royals fans some peace and tranquility," he said, "and end this miserable joke of a season as soon as possible."
Now, amid the ever-present COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the potential for an abrupt ending still lurks over this rejiggered season. That's been amply illustrated across the state, where the St. Louis Cardinals now have had 13 games postponed and will go at least two weeks between games.
And it might reasonably be asked what the meaning of winning it all under these circumstances will be.
And, yes, the Royals might well still turn out to be no good at all.
But as they prepared to resume play Tuesday in Cincinnati, something seems substantially different now than a week ago, doesn't it?
Small sample size that a four-game winning streak might be, it's been delivered in the compressed context of a (scheduled) 60-game season ... right after a six-game losing streak that naturally might have doused faith and even incentive to play.
Moreover, you can trace the apparent reset that matches their longest winning streak of last season (after swamping the Minnesota Twins for their first three-game sweep since last April) to tangible reasons.
So much so that it was a bummer to have an off-day Monday even after playing 17 straight days.
"I just want to keep watching what I'm watching," manager Mike Matheny said.
What anyone watching can see is that, hmm, they're a better team when they have the whole team.
The battle of attrition looms extra-large this season, of course, and every team deals with this one way or another. But for one team coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons, the absence of key players is particularly pronounced.
"We believe in this group," Matheny said, "but we need all of our guys."
Staggered over the last couple weeks, the Royals have welcomed the return from COVID-positive tests of starting pitchers Jakob Junis and Brad Keller. That has reframed a makeshift rotation into a rather compelling one featuring veteran Danny Duffy and enthralling youngsters Brady Singer and Kris Bubic.
Then Sunday was marked by the return of the versatile Hunter Dozier, a development Matheny suggested had a tangible impact before the game with clubhouse chatter along the lines of, "We've got the band back together."
Not to disappoint, in his first at-bat since hitting 26 home runs and driving in 84 in 2019, Dozier singled in the first two runs of the game in what became a 4-2 victory _ sealed by a revitalized bullpen that provided four scoreless innings to lower its collective ERA to 3.16.
Four of the five guys who've made the most appearances out of the pen, Scott Barlow, Greg Holland, Trevor Rosenthal and Josh Staumont, have ERAs between 1.29 and 2.08. (For that matter, one-time forces Holland and Rosenthal look reborn after a few years of injuries and struggles.)
To review, stability among starting pitchers and a dynamic bullpen changes the equation. Matheny went so far as to say he doesn't know of "anything tougher for a young team" than having games taken away in the last few innings. That can have what he called "a three-day carryover" that really takes wind out of the sails.
Instead, the Royals suddenly seemingly have wind beneath their wings offensively, scoring 29 runs in their last four games. That's courtesy in part of fresh juice from newcomer Maikel Franco (his 11 extra-base hits led the American League after Sunday) and catcher Sal Perez, whose return from injury has been vital both behind and at the plate.
Add their pop to two-time AL hits leader Whit Merrifield (four home runs, 11 RBIs) and defending AL home-run champ Jorge Soler (five home runs, 10 RBIs) and Dozier. And glimpses of the impact Ryan O'Hearn and Ryan McBroom can bring.
If Adalberto Mondesi can find the groove he's capable of, if Alex Gordon can just get back to his 2019 form, that's a pretty potent lineup.
Something else stands out from last season, though.
Matheny has been vital in this, particularly in the very ways some had come to believe he was flawed when he was managing in St. Louis: communicating and nurturing young players.
If what we see in his multiple-times-daily media briefings is any indication of his dynamics with KC's players, Matheny is patient and passionate and eloquent and elaborate in how he gets his thoughts across.
And all word and observations are that the man who spent plenty of his pre-COVID offseason traveling the country to get to know his team has stayed on that same trajectory since _ including when he could constantly be seen making his way around every spot of the complex to speak with players at the Royals' original spring training period in Arizona.
"Super hands-on," Merrifield called him in Surprise. "Doing all the things you like to see a manager do."
When he was asked the other day about something young second baseman Nicky Lopez recently said about Matheny seeking him out daily, Matheny spoke to the broader approach.
He recalled once having read a book about "management by walking around and the importance of having face time with your people," something he would have valued as a player when he went from being an "everyday guy to ... (inheriting) the gift of invisibility."
So, seeking indivisibility in a shared cause, to build buy-in, Matheny makes it his business to directly reach out.
To the guys in the bullpen, to hear from them how they feel and share a game-plan for them that day.
To the guys who maybe aren't playing so much, to explain what he sees and hear how they are and what they are thinking, too.
And, he added, "also give them a chance to vent without walking into the office."
Wherever this haphazard Major League Baseball season ultimately is going, nothing really will mean more for the Royals than how it helps them in 2021.
It may not provide "peace and tranquility." But we still figure that's some good stuff to watch while it lasts.
