Royals rise from the dead to jolt fear into AL wild-card hopefuls

Fans of the Kansas City Royals were doing a whole lot of 401(k) checking and fantasy football draft planning after an 8-21 stretch from mid-July into early August took their beloved World Series winners to 11 games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians in the American League Central on Aug. 5.

It was ov-ah. The Royals, at 51-57, were finished.

Kansas City was 7-19 in July, when the starting pitchers had an ERA of 5.27 and the bullpen was worse, at 5.96. Outside of left-hander Danny Duffy, the Royals were throwing three hours of batting practice every night.

Opposing teams approached the bat rack like it was a Chinese buffet. Night after night, game after game, the Royals were a bag of hamburgers handed to a hungry crowd.

It’s not like the offense was doing much, either. You don’t go 7-19 and point to many positives.

Then out of nowhere, really, the season changed. The Royals started to resemble the team that lost the 2014 World Series in seven games to the San Francisco Giants and beat the New York Mets in five games last season.

Going into the start of an important six-game road trip at Miami on Tuesday night, Kansas City had won 13 of 15 games, eight in a row and had shaved its AL wild-card deficit to just 4 games. Even the division-leading Indians are in sight, especially considering the Royals have six games left with Cleveland.

On a dime, the Royals changed the way they’re pitching. Or at least adjusted the effectiveness.

So far in August, KC pitchers have a 2.78 ERA and the relievers are at 1.63.

Royals' Danny Duffy on latest win: 'Just battle' 

Duffy, 11-1 and a recent addition to the Cy Young Award discussion in the AL, has risen to the top of the pitching staff. In his past 11 starts, Duffy has a 2.14 ERA and has given up only 61 hits and 13 walks in 80 innings. He’s an A-C-E ace who has finally come into his own after years of teasing.

Another teaser, right-hander Yordano Ventura, is also showing signs. Over his past five starts, Ventura has a 2.73 and has allowed only 24 hits and 12 walks in 36 innings.

And how about Ian Kennedy, who in his past starts has given up three earned runs in 34 innings while giving up only 22 hits.

Even Dillon Gee got into the act in his last start against the Minnesota Twins, pitching seven innings and giving up only one run.

Wade Davis hasn’t been closing games for nearly a month and Luke Hochevar has been gone just as long. But the bullpen has been in good hands of late with Kelvin Herrera closing games and the likes of Joakim Soria, Peter Moylan, Brian Flynn and Matt Strahm doing some incredible work.

Soria, so hit and miss during the season’s first four months, hasn’t allowed a run in his past eight appearances, covering 7.1 innings. Flynn, Moylan and Strahm, meanwhile, have combined to pitch 22 2/3 innings in August without allowing a run and giving up only six hits.

That’s Flynn, Moylan and Strahm — not Herrera, Davis and Holland. Kansas City has allowed two or fewer runs in 10 of its past 15 games and six of its previous seven.

Royals manager Ned Yost discusses Danny Duffy, eight-game winning streak 

The Royals have done a lot of this August damage against the lowly Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox, going 8-1 against those teams. For the season, Kansas City is 11-2 against Minnesota and has beaten Chicago nine times in 12 meetings. Good news, too. KC still has seven games remaining against the White Sox and six against the Twins.

The trip to Miami and Boston, for three against the Red Sox, should be telling. The Marlins are chasing a wild-card spot in the National League and Kansas City will face phenomenal right-hander Jose Fernandez on Wednesday night. Boston, meanwhile, is in a battle with Toronto and Baltimore in the American League East.

After their current road trip, though, the Royals will play 20 of their final 32 games at Kauffman Stadium, where they’re 40-21. Six of their final 12 games are against Cleveland, and the Indians are 8-5 against the Royals. Even with its hot streak, KC is 8 1/2 games behind Cleveland, whose pitching staff looks to be immune to a bad stretch of any length.

It’s possible the Royals’ putrid July will turn out to have too much stench to wash out. But at least the Royals are making this exciting with Houston (one-half game), Detroit (one), Seattle (three) and Baltimore (four) and Boston (six) still leading KC in the wild-card race.

But, hey, who’s to say the Royals can’t stay hot for another six weeks. The schedule is conducive and the pitching has taken hold. Some of the hitters have even gotten hot, such as Alex Gordon.

Let’s see where this is headed.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Royals rise from the dead to jolt fear into AL wild-card hopefuls."