After a slow start to the season, the Kansas City Royals appear to be firing on all cylinders coming off of their fourth series of the season. The Royals have won four straight games, including three wins in their weekend sweep of the Los Angeles Angels at home.
Center fielder Lorenzo Cain has been on a tear over the past week, racking up 10 hits and raising his batting average to .350. To go along with Cain’s strong performance, catcher Salvador Pérez and third baseman Mike Moustakas have kept up their impressive starts to the season as well. Pérez and Moustakas lead the team thus far with five home runs each and sport batting averages of .289 and .293, respectively.
After taking two of three in Houston last weekend, the Royals returned home for their first series of the season at Kauffman Stadium. They failed to carry over the momentum from the weekend and dropped the first two games of the series to the Oakland Athletics 2-0 and 8-3. The Royals bounced back to take the last game of the series 3-1.
Jason Vargas ended the Royals’ skid and kept up his strong start to the season in the win over the A’s. Vargas threw 7.2 shutout innings, giving up four hits and striking out eight. This lowered his ERA to 0.66, but his record is now 2-0 on the season.
On Friday night, Danny Duffy led the way in the Royals’ 7-1 series-opening win against the Angels, giving up three hits and one run in seven innings pitched.
On Saturday, it was Moustakas’ home run in the bottom of the eighth inning that led the Royals to victory. However, the Royals would have never been in that position without a stellar performance by starting pitcher Nathan Karns. While Karns was credited with a no-decision on the day, he continued Kansas City’s starting pitching excellence, allowing one run and four hits in seven innings pitched.
In Sunday’s 1-0 win over the Angels, pitching was dominant on both sides. For the Royals, that dominance came from Ian Kennedy, who struck out 10 and gave up two hits and no runs in his eight innings pitched. The Royals won the game in the ninth inning on a walk-off single by shortstop Alcides Escobar.
The Kansas City pitching rotation is performing like one of the best in the league right now, with a combined ERA of 3.08, the fourth best in the MLB. Duffy, Kennedy and Vargas each sport sub-3.00 ERA and impressive sub-.210 batting averages against. If the three of them can keep it up, the Royals could be a serious World Series contender.
Although the Royals’ offense has still yet to hit its stride (with the exception of Cain, Perez and Moustakas), this four-game winning streak is a good sign, as the previously questionable pitching staff has been winning games for the Royals. During the winning streak, the Royals have given up a mere four runs, adding up to an ERA of exactly 1.00.
Kansas City will face its 2014 World Series opponent, the San Francisco Giants, this week, as the teams will play a two-game set at Kauffman beginning Tuesday. The Royals will then travel to Arlington to kick off a four-game series against the Texas Rangers.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_