Royals - April News and Notes

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Cain has setback during rehab game

CLEVELAND -- Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain suffered a setback in his rehab assignment, and his latest injury could extend his stay on the disabled list.

Already on the 15-day DL with a left groin strain, Cain injured his hip flexor during a game Tuesday night with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. The Royals had originally expected Cain to return to the club on Friday. That now appears to be wishful thinking, though manager Ned Yost will not speculate until he receives an update from the team doctors.

"He has to fly back to Kansas City and have it re-evaluated by our doctors," Yost said. "It was in a different spot. It was a hip flexor, it wasn't in the groin like it was before. We'll just see what the doctor says and go from there.

Royals snap skid behind homers, Hochevar

The Royals released their pent-up frustration via four home runs, two courtesy of designated hitter Billy Butler. The onslaught of power backed a strong effort from Hochevar, who earned payback against an Indians team that has routinely roughed him up.

"He kept us in check the whole game," said Indians manager Manny Acta. "We couldn't do anything against him when he was out there."

Bad news is Mendoza starts today. Hopefully Paulino gets going soon and we can send Mendoza back to Omaha.

What A Difference A Day Makes

I had planned to take a day off from writing about the Royals. I also planned to take a day off from watching the Royals, but I just can’t seem to tear myself away from this team, no matter what they do. I did miss a few innings due to some plans I had made, but I caught the first couple innings and the last three or four. I’m not sure what it says about me, but after a win for the first time in over two weeks, my mood is sunnier than it’s been in quite some time. I know that baseball shouldn’t rule my life the way it does, but there’s just nothing I can do about that.

You’re all smart, so I don’t really have to tell you that one game still isn’t enough to base anything off, but the team that played the game last night in Cleveland looked like an entirely different bunch, and it started because they were able to get out to a hot start with a two-run homer by Billy Butler. They added two more on a two-run homer by Eric Hosmer and then had an absolutely huge ninth inning to score four more runs in the ninth and put the game away on a three-run homer by Gordon and a second homer of the day by Billy Butler. I don’t even play for the team and I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders. I can only imagine what the boys in blue are feeling.

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Duffy scratched from Friday's start

CLEVELAND -- Danny Duffy will not make his scheduled start Friday at Minnesota, as he is dealing with minor tightness in his left elbow.

In three starts, the hard-throwing southpaw is 1-2 with a 3.63 ERA. He has 20 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings, and he is expected to make his next turn in the rotationm at Detroit on Wednesday.

As Duffy tweeted from @dduffkc23: "i appreciate all the love! The elbow is "feelin good, feelin alrighttt, yeaaa.." Ill be back next start!"

I expect to see Teaford get the start on Friday. Although part of me wants to see Monty get a shot. But there's no sense in rushing him after such a bad year last season. Although he has had a couple of good starts, would like to see a few more. Paulino isn't ready. Smith has had a slow start in AAA. Odorizzi has been pretty impressive in AA, but they're not going to rush him. I'd rather they stay away from SOS.

Hosmer appears to have turned a corner

CLEVELAND -- For weeks Eric Hosmer had hit the ball on the nose with nothing to show for it. The first baseman entered the series against the Indians batting just .203 with four homers.

Baseball's nuances had haunted Hosmer, who hit .293 with 19 homers and 78 RBIs in his rookie season in 2011.

"You could hit a ball hard one day and have nothing to show for it," Hosmer said, "and come out and get two or three bloop hits and have two or three hits to show for it. That's just baseball. You just have to keep plugging along."

Royals ride big fifth to second straight win

CLEVELAND -- The Royals felt that once they snapped their losing streak, they would string together a comparable stretch of wins.

They have made it two straight following their 4-2 triumph over the Indians on a foggy Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field.

Right fielder Jeff Francoeur broke a fifth-inning tie with a broken-bat single that fell under the glove of a diving Shelley Duncan in left field. Third baseman Mike Moustakas and catcher Brayan Pena followed with RBI singles of their own to spring Kansas City to a three-run lead.

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Better late than never. RA hasn't been getting their posts up very quickly this year.

Hochevar Ends The Streak...With Some Help From A Few Homers

Eight runs last night for the Kansas City Royals on four home runs. That’s pretty much what one might have expected before the season started, right? Billy Butler with two blasts, Eric Hosmer with his fifth of the year and Alex Gordon with the bomb to put the game away while the bullpen polished off the last two plus innings: pretty much the pre-season gameplan.

While the offense stole the show in the streak stopper last night, Luke Hochevar had a fine outing. The home opener disaster that Luke provide Royals’ fans on April 13th has tainted the view of him thus far in 2012. Last night was his second very good start and third decent start out of four this season. He’s no Bruce Chen, mind you, but Hochevar has actually been alright.

Luke opened the season throwing 6.1 innings against the Angels, allowing five hits and two runs. After being knocked out, in more ways than one, in the home opener, Hochevar came back the following Friday to allow just two hits and a run in five innings of work. Then last night, Luke tossed another 6.1 innings, allowing just four hits and two runs. We may all want Hochevar to live up to that first overall draft pick status, but truth is that three out of four ain’t bad.

Let’s go back to last night.

[RoyalShock]

We have ourselves a win streak!

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Appears that Teaford is getting the start tonight in Minnesota.

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Swinging With Frenchy

Two in a row! Winning streak!

In Thursday’s game, one of the crazier things that happened was Jeff Francoeur drove a runner home with a single. Because as poorly as this team has played in the last two weeks, Frenchy has stood out as perhaps the worst offensive performer on this struggling club. Seriously… Gordon hasn’t been good, but he’s still picked up some quality plate appearances every now and again. Hosmer has a dismal BABIP, but leads the team with five home runs. No, the worst hitter in this lineup has been Francoeur and it isn’t even close.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.

Let’s dive a little deeper into The Francoeur Abyss…

Francoeur has always had a strike zone that was more about zip codes than focusing on anything crossing over the 18 inch wide slab he’s standing over. Except this season he’s descended into a special kind of free swinging hell. According to Fangraphs, here is the percentage of pitches that would be called balls by a “perfect” umpire that Francoeur is swinging at over the last five seasons:

2008 – 36.3%
2009 – 36.0%
2010 – 43.4%
2011 – 41.2%
2012 – 44.3%

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Royals pool together for thrid victory in a row

MINNEAPOLIS -- Now it's three straight victories, topped off by an escape from last place.

These are better times for the Royals who bumped off the Minnesota Twins, 7-6, and bumped them into last place alone on Friday night as 33,315 hardy fans sat in at chilly Target Field. It's almost enough to make the Royals forget that dreary 12-game skid.

"We did everything right tonight, it felt like. We played good baseball," the Royals' Mike Moustakas said. "But we'd been playing good baseball to this point and now things are starting to go our way a little bit."

Royals call up Adcock, option Teaford

MINNEAPOLIS -- Needing a long man in the bullpen, the Royals recalled right-hander Nate Adcock from Triple-A Omaha on Saturday.

Left-hander Everett Teaford, who had filled that role, was optioned to Omaha after pitching four innings as a fill-in for starter Danny Duffy in Friday night's 7-6 victory over the Twins. Teaford departs with one loss and a 5.73 ERA in three outings.

Adcock, a starter with a 3-1 record and 1.37 ERA in four games, was one of two viable choices for the role. The other, right-hander Vin Mazzaro, pitched six innings on Friday night in a 5-4 loss at Memphis so Adcock is rested and ready to pitch.

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Win streak cut down quickly as Chen struggles

Meantime, Twins right-hander Jason Marquis gave up a solo home run to Mike Moustakas in the second inning, Moose's third this season. Moustakas does well against the Twins; in 10 games against them over his two seasons, he's hit .359 (14-for-39) with three homers and seven RBIs.

Moustakas also raised his season average to .315, second on the Royals only to Billy Butler's .329. Butler went 3-for-4 on Sunday.

The Valuable Mr. Adcock

Being a long reliever is an inglorious job. You sit and sit and wait and wait and people make jokes about putting your face on the side of a milk carton. When the call finally comes, it is usually when your team is in dire straits (or not straits at all) and, after sitting for a week, you are expected to pitch multiple innings.

Everett Teaford was the original long man this year, sitting for seven days to start the season before being called upon to pitch four innings against Cleveland with his team down five runs. He waited eight more days before throwing three more innings and then was called upon to make a spot start last Friday.

Teaford did not have a good start on Friday: lasting just four innings. At that point, without a long man in his pen and due to the back and forth nature of that very entertaining contest, Ned Yost had to use five relievers to finish out the game. The five combined for 85 pitches and the Royals’ deep pen was suddenly in real trouble.

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End of April Stats...

Hitters
Country Breakfast - .329 AVG, 10 R, 6 2B, 5 HR, 16 RBI
Moose - .315, 10 R, 7 2B, 3 HR, 12 RBI
Getz - .308, 6 R, 3 2B, 1 3B
Shortsop Jesus - .295, 8 R, 7 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 7 RBI
Quintero - .286, 5 2B
Yuni - .283, 5 R, 3 2B, 1 HR
Pena - .282, 5 2B
Dyson - .235, 1 2B
A1 - .232, 12 R, 4 2B, 4 HR, 10 RBI
Frenchy - .229, 8 R, 4 2B, 1 3B
Our Mitch - .222, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR
Bourgeois - .214, 1 2B
Hos - .188, 13 R, 2 2B, 5 HR, 13 RBI
Cain - .133

Pitching
Chen - 0-3, 4.23, 5 G (5 GS), 27.2 IP, 18 K/6 BB
Hochevar - 2-1, 4.98, 4 (4), 21.2, 16/8
Mendoza - 1-2, 6.00, 4 (4), 18.0, 6/11
Duffy - 1-2, 3.63, 3 (3), 17.1, 20/10
Sanchez - 1-1, 6.75, 4 (4), 17.1, 13/17
Collins - 0-0, 9, 3.00, 12.0, 14/2
Crow - 0-1, 2.38, 11, 1 SV, 11.1, 11/5
Teaford - 0-1, 5.73, 3 (1), 11.0, 4/7
Herrera - 0-0, 4.50, 9, 10.0, 8/1
Mijares - 1-1, 2.70, 11, 10.0, 8/3
Broxton - 0-1, 2.35, 8, 3 SV, 7.2, 7/3
Coleman - 0-0, 5.40, 5, 6.2, 4/4
Holland - 0-2, 11.37, 7, 6.1, 10/4
Adcock - 0-0, 1.69, 1, 5.1, 3/3
Hottovy - 0-0, 3.86, 2, 2.1, 3/1
Jeffress - 0-0, 0.00, 2, 1.0, 0/2
Our Mitch - 0-0, 0.00, 1, 1.0, 0/0