KC Royals Experience First Slump Of The Season

By Leigh Oleszczak | May 28, 2015

The KC Royals started the 2015 season off hot, going 7-0 the first week, and posting the best record in baseball just last weekend. Now, however, the Royals have officially hit their first slump of the season, losing four games in a row and getting swept by the New York Yankees, which was their first time getting swept this season.

It’s funny because just a few years ago, Kansas City Royals fans would already be checked out of baseball and would be saying, “Bring on football!” Reaching Game 7 of the World Series, however, easily got fans more excited for the next season, and the Royals didn’t disappoint to start 2015 off.

For awhile, all things were clicking for the KC Royals. Their bullpen continued to dominate and their defense is just as outstanding. The starting rotation was mediocre (now is a different story obviously). The most surprising, and easily the biggest contributor to the hot start, however, was the electric offense.

The offense was able to bail the starting rotation out of bad outings and make up for it with a enough runs to win even some of the uglier games. The offense is now the reason the Royals are faltering though. In the last four games, the Royals have only managed FIVE runs!

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I’ll give them a pass for not being able to execute against Michael Wacha because that kid is damn good, but one run against Nathan Eovaldi and Adam Warren? Seriously? The Royals should have been clocking the baseball around every which way in their last few games due to their opponent(s) on the mound.

We all knew the offense’s bats would cool off eventually, and boy have they ever. It’s brought even more attention to the starting pitching too, even though honestly… The Royals’ starters haven’t looked terrible in the last two games.

Jason Vargas allowed a two-run home run early against the Yankees, but he wasn’t getting any run support. Same for Chris Young, who allowed two home runs (one solo and a three-run bomb) on Wednesday’s afternoon game. The losses the past two days haven’t been due to the starting pitching, it’s been because of the lack of offense.

In the past four games, the Kansas City Royals have been outscored 29-5. That’s awful.

All baseball teams go through slumps so fans shouldn’t panic about this. The Kansas City Royals are a good baseball team, and should be able to bounce back.

Last year’s Royals squad struggled on offense, but at least they had the starting pitching to back it up. These Royals don’t necessarily have that. Yes, the past two outings from Vargas and Young weren’t bad by any means, but I’m still not feeling confident in this starting rotation.

Jeremy Guthrie had a historically bad start on Memorial Day, giving up 11 runs in less than two innings, and Danny Duffy has been awful all around. Yordano Ventura and Jason Vargas are both question marks, and Chris Young is likely destined to go back to the bullpen upon Duffy’s return. Edinson Volquez is the only pitcher I’m confident in when he takes the mound.

All baseball teams go through slumps so fans shouldn’t panic about this. The Kansas City Royals are a good baseball team, and should be able to bounce back. In fact, the team is leading the MLB All-Star Game vote currently with the most players voted in at five (Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas, and Salvador Perez).

It’s also pretty impressive that the Kansas City Royals have managed to make it almost two months into the season without hitting a slump. Hell, they hadn’t lost three games in a row since August of last year! That slump, oddly enough, was also four-game losing streak (one loss to the Twins and then a sweep by the Indians), so there’s some hope for you in case you were super anxious.

The Royals have an off-day on Thursday and jump right back into things on Friday in interleague play against the Chicago Cubs at good ol’ Wrigley Field.

The good news is that the Royals likely won’t have to face Cubs ace Jon Lester, who is easily one of the best pitchers in all of Major League Baseball. Hopefully the KC Royals’ bats wake up soon because this team has proven they can win and have the drive to make another deep postseason run.

Next: Five Royals Projected To Start All-Star Game

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