Kansas City Royals Rewind: Greg Holland Continues to Dominate

Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Royals set off on their first West Coast road trip this past week, facing the Seattle Mariners for three games before heading down the coast to take on the Oakland A’s. While neither team had an excellent record heading in to their contests, these treks to the other side of the country can be a bit difficult.

Well, the Royals handled their end of the trip about as well as one could have hoped. Despite a 7-0 loss on Tuesday, the Royals finished the week 5-1, putting a bit more distance between themselves and the second place Minnesota Twins.

This was also a week for milestones. Both Edinson Volquez and Jeremy Guthrie recorded their 1000th career strikeouts this week, and while neither are exactly a threat to challenge Nolan Ryan‘s career mark, it is still a nice achievement.

Of equal importance was how the series against the A’s went. Not only did the Royals sweep Oakland, but they did so without another beanball war breaking out. There will not be any suspensions, any fines and any talking heads regarding the Royals as the worst thing to hit baseball since the wave. Even better, Kelvin Herrera will not have a restraining order placed against him that precludes him from setting foot in California again.

Now that the Kansas City Royals are approaching the halfway point of the season, let us take a final look back at the week that was. First, we begin with the players that struggled last week.

Next: A tale of two outings