At the beginning of the season, the American League Central was only supposed to be a three-team race, between the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, and the Cleveland Indians. Around the beginning of May, it was looking like a two-team division featuring the Tigers and Royals, and up until about a week ago, it looked like the Royals division to lose. Now, and for the rest of the season, it’s about as wide open as it can get. Why? The Kansas City Royals have hit a rough spot. And not just any rough spot; they have come back down to earth, and are about to crash hard if they don’t get their act together.
As in every sport, and with every team, offensive cold streaks are to be expected. Most teams can make up for it with solid pitching and good defense, and at least minimal contributions on offense. Likewise, you can cover up bad pitching with a hot offense. When the two go cold at the same time, it’s a recipe for disaster, as shown in the box score of the 14-1 pounding the New York Yankees gave Kansas City on May 25th. In the previous game, the offense also only scored one run, and the next game saw the same production.
The Royals have scored just eight runs in their last five games, one only six innings long, since beating their in-state rival, the Saint Louis Cardinals, 5-0. They’ve left 32 men on base, and are just 5-19 with RISP. The five starters they’ve faced haven’t helped: John Lackey (3.18 ERA) and Michael Wacha (1.87 ERA) threw for the Cardinals. The three Yankees, Nathan Eovaldi (4.27 ERA), Adam Warren (3.91 ERA), and Michael Pineda (3.36 ERA), also held down an offense that had the best run differential in the MLB. Before anyone claims that it was because “Yankee Stadium has a short porch and is 312 and 315 feet to right and left field..” remember: the Royals were hitting there too.
The weak offense hasn’t been the only culprit. Since a twenty-four inning scoreless streak, which tied a franchise record and ended May 20th, they’ve allowed 40 runs. 22 ER in the last 18 innings have been surrendered by starting pitchers, and all have been earned. Of course, ballpark plays a factor. Jason Vargas, Joe Blanton, Jeremy Guthrie, and Chris Young pitching in a hitter friendly park like New York isn’t exactly comforting, but it’s just how it worked out.
The Royals have the offense to win the division. Six of their nine starters are batting above .280, and they are +46 (down from +52 a few days ago) in run differential. They also have the pitching, but right now, there seems to be a mental problem, which is why most people are saying Danny Duffy was placed on the DL with “bicep tendonitis.” They seem to have lost themselves, and don’t know where to look. If the answer is that they need to get into another fight, then that’s what they need to do. They were winning when they had that “us against the world” mentality.
In this time, the rest of the American League Central, save the White Sox, has heated up. The Twins are 8-2 in their last ten games; the Tigers just took two of three from the Oakland A’s; the Indians are winners of six of their last eight games. Minnesota will get Ervin Santana back from suspension around the All-Star Break, Justin Verlander is looking to return to the Detroit lineup soon, and the Indians just got their starting catcher back from the DL. Kansas City just lost a starting pitcher, but are looking to have Alex Rios back within a couple of weeks. It’s still Kansas City’s division to lose, but it’s now a four-team race, even with Cleveland in last, sitting seven games back. It’s going to be a dogfight for the rest of the season with all of the AL Central teams beating up on each other.
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