Kansas City (and South Korea) Celebrates as Royals win 4-3

I'll have another, please.  Royals win their third in a row and have emerged victorious in 11 out of their previous 14.  Unlike yesterday, this time the Royals succeeded with excellent pitching and just enough oomph from an, at the moment at least, functional offense.  Mike Moustakas, Conqueror of Deserts and Lord of Arizona, powered the team to victory and batted in all 4 Royals runs.

The damage began in the 2nd inning.  After a Billy Butler lineout and Alex Gordon groundout, Lorenzo Cain hit a single.  Moustakas turned on a ball and deposited in the outfield to give Kansas City a 2-run lead and claim the team HR lead at 14.  He would again strike in the fourth inning.  In a rare display of plate discipline competency, Gordon and Cain reached on back-to-back walks.  Moose then singled, scoring Gordon and placing runners at the corners with 2 outs, but Alcides Escobar struck out to end the threat, regaining the lead after Arizona rode the singles train to two runs in the third inning.

Yordano Ventura was very good outside of the aforementioned two-run third inning.  Though he allowed 8 hits, 6 of them were singles, and he only walked one but struck out 8.  Ventura has had an excellent season and would be a great candidate for Rookie of the Year in many years.  He is one of the most important pieces of the Royals going forward, especially if Dayton Moore can sign him to a team-friendly extension.

The Royals bullpen locked down the game yet again.  The three-headed monster of Kelvin Hererra, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland continued their effectiveness, only allowing one run on a sac fly.  Thankfully, the Moose was Loose, and he scored an insurance run in the top of the ninth, allowing Holland to keep his save even though he allowed a run.  Yes, Holland allowed a run.  A rare occurrence.  Indeed, any of the previously mentioned pitchers would be closers on many baseball teams.  Even Herrerra in a down year has been purely effective.

The Royals now stand at 59-53 on the year and are one game from their peak games above .500 after their 10 game winning streak.  More important is that Kansas City is now a mere 3.5 games out from Detroit in the division and half a game from Toronto in the Wild Card.  I don't know about you, but I think that we should never let Sung Woo leave.  The Royals are on pace for 162 wins with him in the country.

Oh, and I'm going to put this right here without a comment.  Let's do this thing, Royals.