This Royals series was inevitable. 

The air is filled with the business of summer. Schools are either out of session or winding down. Kids are making plans to play outside after being given more time off than they know what to do with. Parents put together the finishing touches on family trips. Family dogs look for sunny spots in the lawn where they can pant peacefully. Ice cream consumption is up. Air conditioners are on. Somewhere, someone is already bored.

In the midst of this comes a lackluster series of four baseball games. The Twins split it with the Royals. They sure gave up a lot of runs on the way. I worry the Twins are seeing cracks in their pitching staff. There's a lot of baseball left. If the pitchers crumble, our bats have to do a lot of work to make up the difference. 

There's a great team in Minneapolis in this year, but I don't know if we'll ever get that team on the playing field at the same time. The coaching staff must make difficult decisions, and injuries severely limit those decisions. The Royce Lewis injury is probably the blow that stings the most. 

The Twins need to win the upcoming series against the Tigers to keep up their momentum. They've accomplished too much this year for moral victories to soothe the expectations of the fans. A playoff berth is a reasonable expectation, but a playoff win? That might be a bridge too far.