Kansas City Royals: Five Keys to Winning Cleveland Series

The Kansas City Royals open a critical three-game set on Friday night in Cleveland. The trio of games are massive with the team entering the series just a half-game out of the second Wild Card spot.

The Kansas City Royals are about to enter a stretch of schedule dominated by Central Division games. It could be the difference between a third postseason bid in the past four years or an October wondering what might have been.

Starting with Friday’s game in Cleveland, 20 of the team’s next 23 games will take place against division foes. That stretch includes games against Central teams each of the first 17 days of September.

Coming off Thursday’s heartbreaking loss to Colorado, which saw Mike Minor give up a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning, the Kansas City Royals will look to win a second consecutive series this weekend.

As you may recall, Cleveland made a visit to Kansas City the previous weekend and took two out of three games. The first two games of the series were cakewalks for the visitors, while the hosts earned a hard-fought win in the series-finale.

What will be the keys for the Kansas City Royals to return the favor and steal a series in Cleveland?

No. 2 Take Advantage of Pitching Matchups

The Kansas City Royals were probably just as happy as anybody in the Cleveland organization to find out Corey Kluber was not hurt too badly when he injured his ankle last Friday.

If Kluber—who is challenging for the Cy Young Award this season—had been pushed back a day or two, he would have slotted in among this weekend’s probable starters. Instead he made his normally scheduled Wednesday start against the Red Sox, meaning he wouldn’t pitch again until a primetime showdown with the Yankees Monday night on ESPN.

Also avoided is Trevor Bauer, who has been pitching well of late, as he started opposite Sale on Thursday.

That leaves Ryan Merritt (0-0, 3.12 ERA), Mike Clevinger (6-5, 3.97 ERA) and Carlos Carrasco (12-6, 3.95 ERA) to face the Kansas City Royals. It’s not a group of slouches, but the draw could have been much worse. Like last weekend, for instance, when the three Cleveland starters were Kluber, Bauer and Danny Salazar.

Cleveland’s starting trio will be opposed by Vargas (14-7, 3.59 ERA), Jason Hammel (6-9, 4.73 ERA) and Danny Duffy (8-8, 3.78 ERA), respectively.

The Kansas City Royals would have to feel pretty good about their chances at taking the series. Vargas and Duffy have been the two most consistent starters all season and Hammel picked up the win over Cleveland last Sunday.

No. 3 Improve Bullpen Management

This would be near the top of the list of keys to the rest of the season for the Kansas City Royals.

Sometimes a manager can make every sensible decision and the players just don’t execute. In those situations, the criticism thrown the manager’s way by fans is often just misguided anger.

One of the most difficult tasks for a manager is picking and choosing how and when to deploy the bullpen. It’s not an easy task, but some managers—read as, Ned Yost—struggle with it more than others.

There are generally two schools of thought in regards to the bullpen.

1. Trust your guys
2. Trust the numbers

Both are solid options, but there are times when managers get caught in between. This is when criticism is fair.

It happened on Thursday when Yost replaced Peter Moylan with Minor with the bases empty in the eighth inning and the Kansas City Royals up 2-1. He made the move for reason No. 2. Minor, as a lefty, has a much better track record against left-handed batters.

But after Minor allowed a single and recorded an out, he had to face right-handed hitting Pat Valaika. The numbers would have recommended replacing Minor with a righty or walking Valaika to get to the left-handed hitter behind him.

Yost changed his strategy to No. 1, and Minor let him down. Mistakes like that cannot happen this weekend.

No. 4 Get Back to Running

One of the things that endeared the Kansas City Royals to baseball fans around the country in 2014 was their fearlessness on the bases.

That same fearlessness helped them win the 2015 World Series. In Game 5 alone, the Royals stole four bases and Eric Hosmer‘s iconic sprint home in the ninth inning—the lasting memory of that remarkable series—were driven by that fearlessness.

For some reason, that is no longer part of the team’s game plan.

Kansas City Royals

Obviously losing Jarrod Dyson hurt and having Terrance Gore down in the minors doesn’t help, but the team has 75 stolen bases entering Friday. Whit Merrifield (24) and Lorenzo Cain (23) make up almost two-thirds of that number.

Aggressive base-running isn’t just about steals, though. It’s about putting pressure on the pitcher and the defense. That’s been lacking significantly this year.

The lack of running rears its ugly head the most when you see the number of double-plays grounded into by players at the top of the order. Of the 118 double-plays the Kansas City Royals have grounded into, Cain and Hosmer lead the way with 17 apiece.

No. 3 hitter Melky Cabrera grounded into two within the first three innings on Thursday. Both times Cain was on first base.

Some pitchers are going to do a better job slowing down the running game than others. Some catchers are going to do a better job at slowing down the running game than others. But you still can’t have your fastest player caught up in multiple double-plays and not live to regret it.

Hopefully the Kansas City Royals have learned their lesson and will steal some more bases, put on some more hit-and-runs and just overall put pressure on the Cleveland defense this weekend.

No. 5 Relax and Have Fun

I know this sounds like advice for your child’s Little League team, but it makes sense to say with it being Players Weekend around MLB.

It’s a first-of-its-kind event where players themselves get to decided (within reason) what they can wear across the back of their jersey, among other things. The uniforms and hats have also been re-designed for the weekend.

It’s an obvious ploy to get fans to spend money on more specialty gear, but one that seems to have excited players across the league. Some Kansas City Royals players were more creative than others when choosing their nicknames.

But it’s still a good reminder that baseball—at its core—is supposed to be fun.

In the midst of an incredibly tight Wild Card race and still clinging to hopes of a true Central Division race, this weekend is one of the most important the Kansas City Royals will have the rest of the season.

They need to treat it as such, but they also need to remember (as do fans) that it’s just a game. Well, in this case, it’s just three games. Three games that could go a long way in determining how the Kansas City Royals finish in the standings.

Next: Royals Firmly in the Playoff Hunt

Buckle up. This should be a fun weekend.