Red Hot Royals Win 9th Straight

For much of this season, it looked like the Kansas City Royals would fall short of the playoffs and not get a chance to defend their World Series title. Part of that was due to the emergence of the Cleveland Indians as serious contenders for the American League Central crown, but some of it was the lackluster play of the Royals themselves. The low point came on July 31st, when the Texas Rangers completed a four game sweep of the Royals in Arlington. At that point, Kansas City had lost eight of nine, and had a record of 49-55.

It has been a much better August. The Royals beat Miami 1-0 on the 23rd for their ninth straight victory. It improved Kansas City’s record in August to 16-5, with a season record of 65-60, a game behind second place Detroit and 7 ½ behind Cleveland.

As has been the case the last couple of years, the individual player stats don’t impress much on their own, but the Royals play well as a team and someone steps up when needed. Whether they can put on a strong enough run to at least get a Wild Card remains to be seen; at this point it’s possible that both Wild Cards could come from the A.L East, where Toronto and Boston were tied for 1st at 71-54 after games of August 23rd, with Baltimore two games back at 69-56. The Royals have three games left with Boston but none with the Orioles or Blue Jays. They do have six games left against Cleveland, including three at home to close out the regular season (they also have six left with Detroit), so it could be interesting as the season goes down to the wire.