3 hot takeaways from big KC Royals sweep

Starting pitching remained the name of Kansas City's game

Although the Royals obviously scored enough to win all three games, this sweep wouldn't have been possible without the rotation's continued success. In their 18.2 collective innings, stingy starters Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, and Brady Singer allowed the A's just three runs, which simplified things for the rest of the club and gave the offense some margin for error.

But that wasn't all. Performance by performance, the three starters rolled through Oakland's hitters with relative ease. Ragans started Friday night's opener and held the A's scoreless for his seven innings; he gave the A's only two hits, struck out seven, and faced the minimum in five frames. It was a perfect rebound from the May 11 beating he took from the Angels, who thrashed him for seven runs in 6.1 innings. He's now 3-3 with a 3.70 ERA.

Lugo pitched Saturday night, won his American League-leading seventh game and, although he gave up two runs, his 1.79 is also the AL's best. He fanned 10 for the second game in a row. Lugo hasn't failed to pitch into the sixth inning in any of his 10 starts. After Saturday, he's 7-1.

Singer finished things off Sunday. He struck out nine, walked only one, and yielded just one run in six innings. He's now 4-2 with a 2.70 ERA over his 10 starts.

And the final takeaway...