A season ago, the Kansas City Royals made a surprise run to the World Series on the back of strong pitching and tremendous team defense.
Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer have Royals offense surging
Often praised for their defense and run prevention, the Royals’ offense has Kansas City out to a fast start this April.
Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
The Royals’ fast start to the 2015 campaign has been the result of a slightly different formula. Kansas City boasts one of baseball’s best offenses so far in April, with a red-hot lineup helping the club pick up right where it left off last October.
Lorenzo Cain has been among the hottest hitters in MLB, and both Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer are performing just as everyone expected them to when they first broke into the majors as highly touted prospects.
Through his first 18 games, Moustakas is batting .310/.395/.493 with seven extra-base hits. Perhaps most importantly, he’s also cutting down on his strikeouts in the early going. Hosmer has been nearly as good, hitting .299/.400/.418 and walking in nearly 14 percent of his plate appearances.
The strong starts for Moustakas and Hosmer provide plenty of reason for optimism for the Royals. Often viewed as disappointments given their early-career struggles in the majors, both hitters are still young enough to turn into productive big leaguers and help improve Kansas City’s offense in the process.
If they do carry their April success into the rest of the season, Moustakas and Hosmer will provide a big boost to the Royals’ hopes of a second straight trip to the playoffs.
Kansas City has a whole summer of baseball to play before October arrives, of course, and both hitters will have to prove that their early-season success is sustainable. But if Moustakas and Hosmer have made legitimate improvements, the Royals might prove to be anything but a one-year wonder.
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