About the Royals
Things haven’t gone so well for the Royals this season, but a lot of that was to be expected for a team in its second year of a rebuilding project. While Kansas City has a lot of nice young pieces to move forward with, they could find themselves with a completely different roster in the near future.
For right now, the Royals sit 23.5 games behind the Twins in the AL Central with a 25-49 record. While the record is ugly, there are some positives for the Royals as their starting pitching has started to show some progress as of late. In their last series against the Seattle Mariners, the Royals were able to allow their offense to get into the game as Danny Duffy and Homer Bailey both pitched well to help Kansas City take two-of-three games at T-Mobile Park.
What’s more encouraging for the Royals has been their offense in recent weeks. Whit Merrifield is always dangerous as he clubbed two home runs in Kansas City’s 9-0 win over Seattle on Tuesday night and Jorge Soler is enjoying a breakout season after smashing his 19th home run of the season in a 6-4 win over the Mariners on Monday. This lineup should get even better once third baseman Hunter Dozier returns from an oblique injury.
While the Royals’ power is beginning to emerge, their biggest threat is their speed. Billy Hamilton remains one of the fastest players in the game and Adalberto Mondesi has already swiped 27 bags to lead the American League. Unfortunately, Mondesi will likely miss this series after suffering a groin injury against the Mariners on Tuesday night. According to the Kansas City Star’s Lynn Worthy, Mondesi is in “wait and see” mode to find out the extent of the injury.
Even though they hold one of the worst records in baseball, the Royals have enough here to give the Twins a challenge this weekend. After winning two of their past three series and giving the Twins a competitive set at Target Field last weekend, it won’t be a series that’s as easy as it looks on paper.