Today is May 10 and the last time the Royals were in New York on this date was 1997 for a 5-2 loss. That Saturday afternoon, the Royals fielded a veteran lineup containing the likes of Jose Offerman, Jay Bell, Bip Roberts, Jeff King and Chili Davis.
It is also one of the few times in the last 15 years that the Royals had a winning record on that date. In 1997, they were 17-16 after that loss and wound up losing 94 games. It also occurred in 2000 (18-15 and 77-85 finish); 2003 (21-13; 83-79 finish); 2009 (18-14; 65-97 finish).
As for the present, the Royals take an 18-16 mark into their third series at the new stadium and will start Kyle Davies. Davies gave up Alex Rodriguez’s 500th home run on August 4, 2007 but also turned in outings such as June 6, 2008 when he allowed one run and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 2-1 win.
Speaking of Rodriguez, he is 9-of-53 (.169) since April 23, though he has six hits in his last 22 at-bats. So if you subtract the 6-for-22, he was 3-for-31 beforehand, which might lead you to believe, the end of the slump is nearing.
Certainly manager Joe Girardi believes so.
"I've seen some better swings from him lately" Girardi said "Hopefully the day off helped him, just to get away from it. But as I've said, it's what all hitters go through. And they're gonna go through it at certain times during the year, and it's extremely frustrating, but as a manager you've gotta be patient, and understand that guys are gonna come out of it. That's a matter of time, too."
Just like it was a matter of time for Derek Jeter’s performance Sunday but perhaps the biggest question is can the Royals maintain a pace that has them on pace for an 85-win season.
It does not happen too often where a team leads the league in runs and stolen bases, which describes the Royals. They are tied with Texas and the Yankees with 170 runs and lead the majors with 42 steals out 49 opportunities.
The last instance in the AL was the 2001 Mariners who won 116 times by scoring 927 runs and stealing 174 times. It also occurred when the 1999 Indians stole 147 bases and scored 1,009 times.
Other instances are the 1995 Indians, who won 100 out of 144 games by scoring 840 runs and stealing 132 bags. Nine years before, the Indians also rebounded from a 101-loss season by leading the AL with 831 runs and 141 steals.
The Yankees actually achieved it in 1985 winning 97 games while leading the league with 839 runs and 155 steals.
And the man to address it is Jeff Francouer, the ex-Met outfielder, who was quite engaging when he said the following:
"I’ve never been a huge proponent of base running but when we got to spring training the first day we’re on the back field doing all this base running, For me coming from Atlanta and NewYork, (that were) a little more veteran teams, I wasn’t used to that in spring training and the first couple of days I was like this sucks but they preach aggressiveness and it has helped."
Francouer also spent some time discussing his thoughts about the state of the Mets, a team that he enjoyed playing for immensely even if the results did not show but that will appear in the papers Wednesday.
Speaking of ex-New York outfielders, Melky Cabrera is here. As Jon Lane detailed earlier, Cabrera had a number of late-inning hits for the Yankees, especially two years ago. Cabrera is getting hits and there’s a little less of him as he has appeared to lose about 20 or 25 pounds.
