Kansas City Royals playing early with chip on shoulders
With Opening Week 2015 in the books, there are only two undefeated teams left in MLB and both call the AL Central their home. The Kansas City Royals are looking every bit the part of being capable of defending their 2014 AL pennant. Problem is, the Detroit Tigers look like their stiffest competition.
Everyone assumed that the Tigers were bound to score a lot of runs in 2015. Just how many remains to be seen. Upon sweeping a three game series against the Angels on Sunday afternoon, the 6-0 Tigers have scored seven or more runs in all but one of their ball games this season.
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Kings of Kauffman
Right there with them are the surprise Royals. Why they are considered a ‘surprise’ is precisely what’s fueling their winning ways this month. After sweeping divisional rival the White Sox earlier in the week, they capped their weekend series by sweeping the Angels with a 9-2 victory on Sunday afternoon.
I only say the Royals are a surprise because no one expected them to reach the World Series at this same time last year. Not many people thought they would get off to such a hot start this time around either having lost names James Shields, Billy Butler and Nori Aoki in the offseason.
Right now Yordano Ventura seems up to the challenge of replacing Shields as the de facto ace and free agent acquisitions Kendrys Morales and Alex Rios are doing a fine job of filling any voids on offense. The pair are currently hitting .400 and .360, respectively.
In fact, the entire Royals roster is hitting extremely well. Their early .324 team batting average is second to only the Tigers’ .355 in MLB rankings. The other statistic that they trail only the Tigers in the early go is run differential, where Detroit rests at plus-28, while KC finds itself at 18.
The starting pitching has been there as well for the Royals in April. But once again, it’s the outstanding bullpen clearing the way for late inning wins. Through 13 innings pitch, they are the only relief unit in MLB yet to have allowed an earned run. The group has also collected a win, four saves in five chances and has the opposition batting a mere .118 against them.
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Wade Davis appears to be picking up right where he left off in 2014 with his career year when he went 9-2 with a 1.00 ERA over 72 IP. Davis is presently 1-0 with five punch outs in four appearances.
Elsewhere in the competitive Central division, the White Sox have come out of the blocks fairly slow after a 2-4 start. It’s fair to say the revamped roster is under-performing. If they find their stride soon, the division looks to be one of baseballs more exciting collection of squads for a second year. Last season, it featured two playoff clubs and the Cleveland Indians, who went 85-77 and narrowly missed a Wild Card berth by three games.
The AL Central is indeed one to follow right now. The Royals surely feel spurned by many pundits and prognosticators after few took KC to follow up 2014 with another postseason run. The Tigers have arguably the best lineup around. But that Royals have something Detroit does not — it’s playing with the same dangerous chip on their shoulders that was present all of last October and rewarded them win their first AL pennant since 1985.
Next: Slow starts shouldn't damage high hopes for these three clubs