On May 7th, the Kansas City Royals found themselves atop the American League Central, three games ahead of the Detroit Tigers and riding a six-game winning streak.

They had a young core of players, a highly regarded manager and staff full of young power arms anchored by the hottest pitcher in baseball.

Their powdered-blue minions couldn’t help but wonder, “are we this year’s Tampa Bay Rays?”

And, why not? For the past decade the Rays and Royals mirrored each other in their futility. Perpetual bottom dwellers whose only solace from another losing season was the accumulation of talent through high picks in next year’s draft.

Until of course, the Rays finally turned all those talented young draft picks into a winning ballclub last season. 

After the first month of the season, the Royals looked poised to do the same. Zack Grienke was dominating hitters at a record pace.  First baseman Billy Butler looked as though he had shed his Kruk-like figure while keeping his Kruk-like swing and Coco Crisp actually looked like the top of the lineup sparkplug that he was advertised to be.
For two teams that mirrored each other for so many years,  the Royals appeared to be also mimicking the Rays winning ways.

By the time the Royals had come and gone through Tampa to begin June, having just been swept by the Rays behind consecutive pitching gems by Andy Sonnanstine (6.2 iIP, 2 ERs, O BB), Jeff Niemann (CG, 2 hits, 0 ER, 6 Ks) and James Shields (8 IP, 2 ER, 8 Ks),  Kansas City had lost seven in a row and slipped to a virtual tie for last place with the Cleveland Indians.  The Rays, in the meantime, had pulled themselves to a .500 record and were expecting a jolt with the addition of former #1 pick David Price to the staff. Kansas City’s latest #1 drafted pitcher from the year before, Luke Hochevar was alternating between solid yet unspectacular outings and getting torched.

While the Rays’ touted third baseman of the decade Evan Longoria was on his way to earning his second straight trip to the All-Star game, the Royals’ heir apparent to the hallowed hot corner was headed towards hip surgery.  While the Rays slugging first baseman Carlos Pena was well on his way to another anticipated .250-30-100 line for the season, KC’s Mike Jacobs seems unlikely to replicate his .242-32-93 line from last year.

And so goes the divergence of these two former compatriots of end-of-the-year cellar-brity; one scratching and pulling its way back to the front, the other pushing to keep from being shoved to the back.  Heading into the second half of the year, the Rays are seven games over five hundred and three games out of the wild card. The Royals own the fifth worst record in baseball.

If the Rays are to indeed get back into the thick of things then they need to get off to a strong in the second half. And while the Royals may not have been “this year’s Rays’” Tampa Bay needs to start playing like this is their year.