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. 1 Avoid Falling Behind Early

Obviously if the Kansas City Royals never fall behind, they can’t lose. That’s not always realistic. I mean, this team is near the top of the league in come-from-behind wins.

But with Cleveland’s offensive firepower, a team can not let them get going early. Boston ace Chris Sale found out about that on Thursday when he was chased after allowing seven runs in three innings.

Cleveland struck early in each of the two games it won last weekend in Kansas City. Ian Kennedy gave up three runs in the first inning and two in the third last Friday. The next day, Jason Vargas—who will start for the Royals this Friday—allowed one run in the first, two in the fourth and another in the fifth.

In each of those instances, the Kansas City Royals came to bat in the first inning already facing a deficit. As much as the team would like to turn the tables, much like they did with a pair of second-inning runs in Sunday’s win, keeping Cleveland off the board is priority No.1.

Even in that Sunday win, Cleveland pushed across three early runs—two in the third and one in the fourth—to take a 3-2 lead before Kansas City rallied.

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. 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.