Kansas City Royals: Alex Gordon has been red hot since return

By Leigh Oleszczak | May 3, 2018

BOSTON, MA - MAY 1: Alex Gordon #4 of the Kansas City Royals reacts after hitting a game tying home run during the ninth inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox on May 1, 2018 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /

The Kansas City Royals haven’t been good this season, but one of the few bright spots is that Alex Gordon has been on fire since returning to the team.

Not much good has come for Alex Gordon since he inked the largest contract in Kansas City Royals history before the 2016 season. He was pretty useless at the plate in both 2016 and 2017 and looked to be just as bad early on in 2018.

After an injury sent Gordon to the disabled list, he returned over a week ago and since then has been hitting extremely well. In the last seven days (Gordon’s been back for ten, but bare with me here), Gordon has hit .290 with nine hits, four RBI, three runs, one double, one home run, and has also walked once.

This is a JOY for Royals fans, who have been begging to see any production out of the former Nebraska Cornhusker. While it’s too early to tell if Gordon’s officially back, this is definitely a good sign.

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Watching him hit that game-tying home run the other night took us all back to Game 1 of the World Series where Gordon tied things up and sent the game to extra innings. While Gordon’s hot streak began before that home run in Boston, hopefully he’s finding his rhythm at the plate again.

Diving into this deeper, when Gordon hit the disabled list, he was batting a mere .174 and looked lost at the plate once again. Now, however, he’s been able to get that average up to .274 and if you look at just his numbers in May (small sample size, I know), Gordon has been hitting .333.

Part of what made the Kansas City Royals so good during those epic runs was not only Gordon’s elite defense (which is still on point), but his reliability at the plate. These Royals aren’t going anywhere this season, no, but if Gordon can redeem himself for how poorly he’s batted the past two years, then perhaps his legacy won’t be tarnished at all when his contract is up after next season.

It’s been rough for Royals fans to have to watch Gordon struggle and now he’s looking like himself again. The only thing to be cautious of here is that it’s still too early to tell if Gordon is indeed back or if he’s just benefitting from a hot streak.

Alex Gordon returned to action on April 24th, so if he’s still hitting this well a month from that date, then we can get excited about Gordo. If not, however, then he’s probably done after his contract is up.

Hopefully Gordon can keep his hot hitting ways up because Royals fans sure missed watching him perform well at the dish.

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