Billy Butler Leads Royals Hit Parade. Meanwhile, Danny Duffy Tweets

May 13, 2013; Anaheim, CA, USA; Kansas City Royals designated hitter Billy Butler (16) slides beneath the tag of Los Angeles Angels catcher Chris Iannetta (17) to score in the fifth inning at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

There have been questions all year about the Royals offense. Where is Eric Hosmer‘s power? What does Mike Moustakas have to fix? And recently – surprisingly – what’s wrong with Billy Butler?

On Monday night, at least, the Butler question was answered. Apparently there’s nothing wrong with Butler.

Before Monday’s game, Ned Yost had told Bob Dutton that he had no worries about Butler, the most consistent bat in the Royals lineup over the past few years.

"I come to the park each day expecting Billy to get four hits. He might do it tonight. – Ned Yost on Butler’s struggles"

Well Yost was wrong. Butler had five hits (and five RBI) as the Royals pounded out 19 hits en route to an 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals scored in six different innings and six batters had more than one hit. The team had five doubles overall and 14 singles. More astonishing, they scored 11 runs without the benefit of a walk or a home run and struck out 13 times.

Early, Joe Blanton was using his changeup well to get strikeouts, but nothing else was working for him and he was just as hittable as he’s been all year. That allowed the Royals to get out ahead early and keep piling on. Moustakas and Chris Getz were the only starters to go hitless.

After a 1-6 stretch of games in which the Royals had scored just 23 runs the old anxiety that comes with being a Royals fan was rekindled. Thoughts of collapse were bouncing around the internet, so a big win like this one can hold off some of those fears. Still, it’d be nice to see the Royals have some more consistent home run power and some walks so that they wouldn’t have to bunch together multiple hits to score runs. The lineup put 33 balls in play. Of those, 19 fell for hits for a BABIP of .576. I don’t have to tell you that that isn’t sustainable.

Luis Mendoza threw six innings, shaking off some rough starts, and got six strikeouts with no walks in the process. Luke Hochevar worked the final three innings for his first career save and he looked great doing it for the most part.

A special treat for some tonight was the different tone presented by the Royals official Twitter account, as they handed the controls over to Danny Duffy.

By now, you know that Duffy is an enthusiastic guy, so while he’s rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, why not let him take the time to talk with fans?

Some highlights:

After a Billy Butler double in the first.

Duffy tweets to himself.

After a blast of a double by Salvador Perez, Duffy showed his appreciation.

And he had to show some more love for Billy Butler on his big night.

Don’t we all, Danny. Don’t we all.