We are five games in, and what started out as something unpredictable turned into the Giants taking the crucial lead. The Royals looked like they were in a fighting mood for a while, but they managed to give two at home to the Giants, one of which while Madison Bumgarner on the mound, which is never a good idea, no matter who you are.
So now, if the Giants win Game Six, it's all over. Predictability wins, Spontaneity Loses. No matter how hard the Royals fought, and no matter how strong they were, the Giants will end up with the glory.
And that's becoming hard for me to stomach.
This is starting to turn into a Quentin Tarantino movie, to me. And by that I mean it's bloody, glorious and fun to watch, but the important things like the story arc are completely abandoned.
I should clarify that, because 'story arc' is kind of an odd thing to think about with baseball. So here's what I mean. Prior to the playoffs, the stories that were popping up everywhere were the rise of the Nationals, the sheer dominance of the Dodgers, the miracle offense in Baltimore, and the comeback of the Royals. We've whittled those stories down to one, and it's the Royals. The Giants don't really have an arc--for the case of this, they're the antagonist, who starts out being kind of menacing, and then ends up being the bad at the end because nobody could stop them.
Now, what kind of story would this be if the team with the heroic arc, the Royals, lost to the team that had a demise coming to them from almost the beginning?
Tarantino will set up arcs and then watch as they don't really pay off. He'll set up a character that deserves redemption, and then kill her off before she even gets to see the character. And this is what this Series feels like. The Royals are gonna get killed off before they're able to redeem themselves.
Tomorrow night, the Giants and Royals are going to play Game Six, and the stakes are going to be high. And if the Giants finish them off, it'll be a great series nonetheless, but it'll feel like we, as the audience, got cheated a little bit. All of this 'Royals' business, all of that great baseball story...thwarted by a team we could kind of tell was going to win from the beginning of the year.
I'll be fine either way, but I think it'd make more sense if the Royals won. That's all.
