Summertime Rolls

Well, well, well- Here we are, one week into August, and The Kansas City Royals find themselves in second place in The American League Central with 59 wins and 53 losses. They trail The Detroit Tigers by three and a half games and are only a half game behind The Toronto Blue Jays for the second wild card spot.

After a horrid start to the second half of the season, and losing Eric Hosmer for at least four weeks, The Royals are in a great position to make it to their first playoffs since 1985. Punching Oakland in the mouth at home, taking two of three, makes a playoff appearance seem like a definite possibility.

While The Royals starting pitching certainly deserves most of the credit, let’s look at a couple of other recent factors that have put them in this spot.

With Eric Hosmer on the D.L., Billy Butler has taken over at first base. While Billy certainly isn’t the gold glover that Hosmer is, he has done a surprisingly good job with his limited range. It appears that playing defense every day has also brought about the return of the 2012 version of Butler, who finished the season with a .313 batting average. While his homeruns are certainly down from 2012- he hit 29 that season, this year he’s hit only 6- he seems to be seeing the ball better, even hitting out of the shift once or twice. His offensive production is a welcome addition to a lineup that is almost last in all offensive stats this year.

Another reason for The Royals recent success comes from the last place anyone would have expected: Mike Moustakas. Moustakas, who has been slumping all year, seems like he might be on the precipice of turning the corner. Although his batting average is still below .200 and made two errors in the same inning earlier this week, he has been getting some very big and timely hits. His 14 homeruns leads The Royals and his last homerun against the Diamondbacks helped The Royals hang on for the 4-3 victory. If Moustakas can keep his offensive production up for the last eight weeks of this season, most people won’t care if he finishes the season with at batting average of .225.

The Royals have the easiest schedule of the teams vying for a playoff spot. Winning the division, while improbable, is certainly not out of reach. The Royals have seven games left against Minnesota, four against The White Sox, three against The Rockies, six against The Rangers, and four against The Red Sox. All of these teams have losing records and The Rangers may finish in last in the west.

The key to The Royals success will begin this week. The Royals have three games against San Francisco, followed by the four biggest games in The Royals 2014 season against Oakland. If they can get through this 7 game stretch with a winning record, The Royals will be in excellent shape as the schedule eases up for a week.

For the most part, The Royals have been taking care of teams they should beat, with a couple of notable exceptions (The Astros).

The difference between The Royals winning the division or being a wild card team may come down to the six remaining games against The Tigers and their three Cy Young award winning pitchers. That has to be one of the greatest starting rotations in recent history, if not ever.

In the beginning of the season, I wrote an article detailing the difficult schedule in August and September. While the remaining eight weeks certainly won’t be a cakewalk, I am happy to admit that I was completely wrong. I had no idea that The Rangers and Red Sox would be this horrible. That being said, they are still major league teams with great players. The Royals would do well to keep the same approach they have employed all season and take it one game and series at a time and maybe, just maybe, Kauffman Stadium have a sell out in October.

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