Kansas City Royals: Five Keys to Winning Cleveland Series

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.