Red Hot Royals Rip Tigers

Strange as it may seem, the Kansas City Royals are the hottest team in baseball right now, winning nine of ten, including eight in a row.  On June 16th, Kansas City beat A.L. Central leading Detroit Tigers 11-8 to close to within a half game of first place.  Here’s a nice catch by centerfielder Lorenzo Cain, robbing Detroit’s J.D. Martinez of an extra base hit.

The Royals play two more in the series, so they could take over the lead in the Central.

Kansas City’s players are putting up decent, though not great numbers; outfielder Alex Gordon is hitting .286 with seven homers and 36 RBIs and is probably their best overall offensive player. Ex Tampa Bay Rays’ righthander James Shields is 8-3 with a 3.50 ERA and journeyman Jason Vargas, pitching for his fifth big league team, is 7-2 with a 3.25 ERA.  Closer Greg Holland has been superb, converting 20 of 21 save opportunities.

Overall, Detroit has the talent to win the division, but the race in the Central is shaping up to be a good one, with the Royals closing in, the Cleveland Indians just 2 ½ game back and the White Sox and Twins just five games back.  There’s no reason to panic—yet, but the Tigers are going to have to turn it up a notch and play up to their potential as we get deeper into the season, or they’ll go nowhere in the post season if they do get that far.

One area that will be a concern if it continues is the current slump that pitcher Jason Verlander is going through.  Verlander gave up seven earned runs in six innings in losing to the Royals on the 16th; he’s now lost six of his last eight decisions and has an un-Verlander like ERA of 4.98.

There are those who think Verlander’s problem is that he’s distracted by his girlfriend, who happens to be supermodel Kate Upton.  We don’t think so.  We think it would have a positive effect, and that he’d want to be at his best and impress her, lest she dump him for some other Cy Young Award winner.  Like his teammate Max Scherzer.