Kansas City Royals: Running Royals Baseball is Back

The Kansas City Royals running style of baseball is officially back. The team’s playing harder now than any other month this year. Championship baseball is back in Kansas City.

The defending World Series Champions continue to surprise the national media around the world. The Kansas City Royals won 20 of the last 27 games played in August for a winning percentage of .741.

The winning ways re-emerged after a forgetful July. The KC Royals managed to win just seven games that month going a putrid 7-19 in July. All hope of making the playoffs for a third straight year seemed all but dead, yet it wasn’t.

During the past week, the Kansas City Royals returned to their running ways. Since August 23, Kansas City base runners stole eight bases. The Royals have stolen over one bag per game for the last week. That’s a great sign.

They’re a few great things about stealing bases. A base runner who’s a threat to steal puts unwanted pressure on the pitcher. He must check the runner on a regular basis to make sure he stays put. If the pitcher fails to do so, the runner might steal with ease.

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Let’s say Raul Mondesi, Jr. stands at first base with no one out in the inning. Everyone in the building knows what he wants to do. He wants to rip off second base to get into scoring position for the hitter with no one out.

If he steals the bag, a hit will drive him home for the run. If the hitter get’s him over somehow, that works too. The next man could easily drive him in with a sacrifice fly or something similar.

Speed kills opposing teams not just on the base paths but in the field as well. If a defending has above average speed, he can use that to his advantage on hard hit balls to the gap or soft hits in front of him, to make a special out.

The Royals use their speed to make spectacular defensive plays like Jarrod Dyson did in Miami last week. Take another look at one of the best catches ever made.

Dyson is a fast man. I guess “that’s what speed do.” The numbers from Statcast are almost unbelievable. He nearly reaches 20 MPH, times his jump perfectly and climbs a wall to rob a possible home run. Insane.

Dyson told Royals beat reporter, Rustin Dodd, he’s lost a step.

I told Jarrod Dyson Statcast had his top speed at 19.8 mph. He was nonplussed. "I’m getting slow then," he said. "I'm normally at 20-21."
— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) August 26, 2016

The Kansas City Royals are a force of a team to be reckoned with when the players utilizes speed. Every time I watch a game, I see a stolen base or a fantastic defensive play nearly each and every game.

Next: KC Royals All-Time Leaders in Home Runs

The Kansas City Royals know what kind of team they have. They are ready to make another run at a playoff appearance in 2016. Fans might have thought the KC Royals were dead but they are alive and running straight towards a playoff spot.

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