Baseball Expectations v. Reality | OPENING WEEK TAKEOVER

For the final post in my Opening Week Takeover, I am joining forces with one of my best friends: Kaytlen from Bases Loaded Banter. Follow her and check out her blog and you won't regret it, I promise. Anyways, for this last post, we are doing some fun scenarios where we talk about the expectation of them versus the reality of them. I'm bringing you four negative realities, while Kaytlen will be focusing more on positive realities.

You can find her half of this collab here (some of my favorite scenarios are in that one)!
Expectation
You know when it's the bottom of the 9th inning and your team is only down by a couple of runs? Well, when that happens to the Tigers, and the middle of our lineup is up, we usually feel pretty decent about our chances to come back and win. Maybe Kinsler will get a hit and Cabrera will stun us all with one of his home runs. Maybe it will be VMart or JDMart. No matter who it is, we've got that comeback in the bag.

Reality
It's the bottom of the 9th inning and our 3, 4, and 5 hitters are due up. What happens? Strikeout, lazy fly out, or maybe a single and a double play. It doesn't matter. What does matter is this: our best hopes for a victory have let us down and, sadly, the game ends in a loss.

Expectation
Every team has that other team - or maybe that other couple of teams - that usually brings around a series of easy victories, if not a sweep. It's mid-season, pre-All Star break, and your boys are tired. Never fear, though, because that team is coming up. Shut 'em down with your pitching, the offense breaks out in a big way, no problem.

Reality
When I said the boys are tired, I meant... they are tired. The offense might as well be sleeping at the plate and the defense is putting a few Es up on the board. Let's not even get started on the pitching. What should have been an easy series win? Better off forgotten.

Expectation
You know that moment: one of your star players lands just a bit off when running down the line. They're limping. They come out of the game. It's all over, right? Wrong. The manager reassures the media that the injury isn't that bad, day-to-day, definitely won't require a trip to the DL. The player, for their part, echoes what the manager is saying: "I'm fine. I'll be back soon. I'm not worried." Fair enough. If they aren't worried, we don't need to be worried.

Reality
We should have been worried. What we were told was a minor thing ended up as a six- to eight-week recovery time. Yes, there was a trip to the DL. Yes, there were minor league rehabilitation games. That's the last time we take their word for it, right? Until the next time someone tweaks their calf and, oh, it will just be a few days...


Expectation
Your starting pitcher has been good - really good - but he is showing signs of tiring late in the game. You think your manager should have someone warming in the 'pen and you trust him to make the right decision. Your started lets a few men on base and appears to be really struggling, missing his locations and leaving stuff up in the zone when it shouldn't be. He's definitely going to get pulled now, right?

Reality
Nope. He's left in. The dreaded "one batter too late" motto comes back to haunt another day. He gives up a homer, a bases-clearing double, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. It was one batter too late. Then, your manager goes to the 'pen - now that your team is down however many runs and all morale has left the stadium. He will learn from it this time, though. Guaranteed (...maybe).

Thank you so much for following along on this week-long adventure and stick around for more baseball fun as the season wears on.