Advertisement

Here’s the mentality that helped KC Royals produce the biggest upset in MLB this season

On his first day in the big leagues, Kansas City Royals former 21st-round draft pick Nate Eaton started in center field and blasted a 416-foot home run for his first hit in the majors, flipping the bat away with a matter-of-fact flare as the ball shot into space and his family yelled from the stands behind the dugout.

Considering the circumstances, Eaton took that all in stride.

He played his part in the Royals’ 3-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night at the Rogers Centre. His home run served as an exclamation point on the night.

The Royals — having placed 10 players on the restricted list for the trip to Toronto due to Canadian travel restrictions that require individuals to be vaccinated against COVID-19 — were the biggest underdogs in a MLB baseball game this season according to the Bet MGM sportsbook.

The fact that the Royals were underdogs (at +310 while Toronto was -400), adding eight players from the minors to fill out their roster prior to Thursday’s game, wasn’t a shock to anyone.

Apparently, nobody told Eaton and his cohorts that the underdog was never supposed to win.

“You guys, needless to say, were not expected to win in this environment,” a reporter prefaced his question before he continued, “How good does it feel to come out and turn that on its head?”

After charging head on into a whirlwind day and hitting a home run that set the Royals clubhouse on fire with celebration, all of a sudden a question gave Eaton reason for a brief pause.

“I feel like we’re expected to win in every environment, no matter the circumstances,” Eaton replied somewhat quizzically.

Somehow amid all the talk of the odds being stacked against the Royals — infielder Nicky Lopez used that exact reference — and national pundits referring to the Royals revamped roster as a Triple-A or Double-A club, it never quite registered in their minds that they couldn’t win a baseball game.

The Royals had won three of four series prior to this road trip. Of course that had happened with most of the Royals regulars still part of their lineup.

Yet Lopez stated prior to Thursday’s game that their “momentum doesn’t need to stop.”

Highly-touted prospect Nick Pratto was one of the newcomers who made his debut on Thursday night. Prior to the game, he talked about the excitement and the special moment he shared with his friends and family informing them that he’d made it to the majors.

Pratto also said before the game without wavering, “We still show up to the park with a job to do with the guys that we have. The main goal is winning games.”

The just-happy-to-be-here vibes apparently weren’t something the Royals newbies brought with them North of the border.

“I can honestly tell you that I don’t think that I’ve ever walked onto a field and didn’t expect to win,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said prior to Friday’s game. “That’s not just like some canned answer.

“Shoot. I hope nobody does, and they better not tell me about it if they do. But you can’t tell me that we can’t beat any other team on any particular night. Why not tonight? We do what we do, which is what we can control. Now, are there nights when we know there are some things that are going to make it more difficult? Was last night one of them? Yeah. There’s stuff. There’s potential distractions.”

The Royals had five rookies in their starting position players in their lineup, plus a rookie starting pitcher. Two of the players were making their major-league debuts, while two other rookies hadn’t played in the big leagues before this season.

“I never for a second walked out there thinking, ‘If we win this, this is going to be a miracle,’” Matheny said. “Just never. That’s who I am, and I hope that’s who they are.”