Another lineup shake up: Moustakas moves to leadoff

The Royals continue to look for ways to jump start a dormant offense that has scored just six runs during its five-game losing streak. Today, Ned Yost reshuffled the lineup once again for the Tuesday night matchup against the White Sox, leading off with Mike Moustakas. Moustakas leads the team with a .919 OPS, hitting .288/.329/.591 with six home runs and four walks.

Lorenzo Cain, who leads the team in walks with 13 and is hitting .313/.429/.375, moves up to the #2 spot. Ned Yost prefers the lefty/righty/lefty pattern in his lineup, so Eric Hosmer moves up to #3, followed by Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, and rookie right fielder Jorge Bonifacio.

Yost had tried to shake up the lineup over the weekend when he inserted Whit Merrifield as the leadoff hitter in Sunday’s game against Texas. But Merrifield went 0-for-8 in that spot and is hitting .217/.280/.435 in 25 plate appearances. Christian Colon gets the start at second base tonight.

Moving Moustakas to leadoff is an interesting gamble, since Moose does not represent the “old school” type of leadoff hitter. More and more teams are going with players who can get on-base at the top of the lineup rather than light-hitting speedsters. The Indians won the pennant last year with slugger Carlos Santana leading off much of the time. While Moose has been great at slugging home runs, he hasn’t been terrific at getting on-base however, unlike Lorenzo Cain, and you have to think the two would be flip-flopped if it were not for the adherence to the lefty/righty/lefty mold.

The Royals are dead last in all of baseball in runs scored and are hitting just .199 on the season as a team.