All Aspects of a Good Team Visible in 5-2 Royals Win

Let's see, score more runs than the league average. Check (61 total games this season)

And allow less runs than the league average. Check (21 matching games for both requirements)

And have a closer come in for a 1-2-3 9th inning. Check (5 matching games for all 3 requirements)

And have no errors in the game. Check (2 games meet all four)

So this is the 3rd time this season that hitting, starting pitcher, closer and defense have all showed for the Royals in a single game. Yea.

One of the games meeting the criteria was on July 21st when the Royals beat the Twins 7-3. The other game was on July 14 when the Royals beat the Peavy and the White Sox 6-3. I am not sure why Royals play their best against Peavy, but it is nice to beat the Sox

Highlights

• All the hitters got on base except Pena. Butler and Abreu each had 2 hits.
• Butler went yard in the 8th to extend the Royals lead from 1 run to 3 runs.
• Frenchy had a bunt hit.
• Bruce Chen was strangely effective. He started out the game by giving up a HR to Beckham. He only allowed one more run over the 6+ innings and only struck out 2 batters.
• Herrera was nasty by striking out 3 of the 4 batters he faced.
• Hosmer was out trying to go from 1st to 3rd with as ugly slide.
• Holland worked a 1-2-3 9th inning.
• Hacker of the game. Abreu saw 7 pitches in 4 PA. At least he is hitting 0.429.