Royals capitalized on executing small things in series-clinching victory over Cubs

The bats have come alive of late for the Kansas City Royals, as Wednesday afternoon's commanding 8-4 victory was the latest strong offensive showing. This marked the fourth time in the last six games since the All-Star break that the Royals have scored seven or more runs.

Unfortunately for Kansas City, those other two games have been either one run or shutout losses, low-scoring affairs that they've become far too accustomed to producing this season.

After one of those difficult losses on Tuesday night, the Royals came back and responded excellently, seemingly doing next to everything right in the series finale.

While the four homer outburst will likely be the biggest takeaway from this game, what should be highlighted as well is just how well the Royals offense executed the small things to set the offense up for success.

Royals capitalized on executing small things in series-clinching victory over Cubs

Right off the bat, in the top of the first, the Royals caught a lucky break after leadoff man Adam Frazier popped up to Seiya Suzuki who flubbed the routine play in right field, dropping the ball and allowing Frazier to advance to second.

This set Maikel Garcia up to lay down an excellent bunt, which Vinnie Pasquantino would go on to praise in his postgame on-field interview with Joel Goldberg, as it gave him the opportunity to hit with a runner on third with just one out. And he did the most with that opportunity, taking the best pitch to hit, despite it being the first pitch he saw, and promptly depositing it into the seats for a two-run homer.

Then, even though it didn't amount to anything, Salvador Perez would take the same approach as Pasquantino, understanding starter Colin Rea didn't look his best and taking advantage of good pitches to hit when they came, again even if it meant not working a count and attacking the first pitch.

Fast forward to the second, and it was Tyler Tolbert - who was given a rare start - who used his speed to his advantage by running a groundball out hard and being rewarded with first base after an error. He'd then use his blistering speed to his advantage again and give the top of the order the opportunity to hit with a runner in scoring position by stealing second (even if they didn't capitalize on it).

Then come the third inning, while it may not have appeared to be the same type of small-ball the Royals displayed in the opening two frames, it was Salvador Perez that would capitalize on some favorable situations.

The wind was blowing quite strongly towards the left field, and Perez took advantage of the environment by swinging at a pitch down and in that normally wouldn't be a smart to swing at, but given the wind, it was a good pitch to get underneath and let the wind do the work. And boy did it ever, as it carried the ball out to left for Salvy's 18th round-tripper of the year.

Moving to the sixth, it was Kyle Isbel's turn. The Royals center fielder, while not a great hitter, did what he's done to a solid degree this season and that's set the table for the next man up. In this case he did so by getting on base the painful way after being hit by a pitch. This set up Tolbert for his "Kodak Moment" as the great Reggie Miller would say, belting his first career big league home run.

The rare outburst in power is what the stat sheet will remember first and foremost about this game, and that's great. The Royals needed need powerful outings like this. But it should not be lost on Royals fans just how those homers came to be, as it was a series of small-ball plays or simply smart at-bats that set them up, giving this one a real postseason vibe.

Does this performance suddenly eliminate the Royals need to go out and seek offensive upgrades? No, absolutely not. If they want to be contenders down the stretch they'll need to be buyers at the deadline.

However, what this performance did do is instill some confidence in the fanbase, as well as probably the guys in the clubhouse, that it just takes one smart at-bat to spark something. It showed that this team is capable of keeping the line moving and finding ways to succeed at all costs, even if there offense has looked woefully inept at producing runs for the vast majority of the season.

Kansas City will hope to keep the good time rolling, as they head back home for a weekend series against AL Central rivals and current Wild Card threats in the Cleveland Guardians starting on Friday.