Last week, the Royals went through a drought -- one that we've already spoken of recently. It's the home run drought. No surprise there, right? Well, last week things got even worse.
The Royals went seven games in a row without any homers in games against the Nationals, the Cardinals and the Braves. It's the longest such streak for Kansas City since the 2000 season, when they somehow went 8 games in a row with a line-up that included Jermaine Dye (33 HR that season), Mike Sweeney, Johnny Damon, and Carlos Beltran. Even Mark Quinn hit 20 that year, but just not in that eight game span. Needless to say, that streak in 2000 was more of an anomaly than anything.
The fact is that this year's Royals line-up warrants such a streak. And that's not been the only stretch of games where the Royals have failed to hit a longball. There's already been two three-game stretches and a four-game stretch, meaning that the Royals simply don't have the juice in the line-up to muscle the ball the way a team needs to if it's serious about winning. While homers aren't everything, a team lacking this much power shouldn't hold up much in the way of expectations.
This is a topic already written about here and in other places, but it won't be the last time the drum is beaten on the issue until something is done (which won't happen until at least the off-season). It's a sad state of affairs in the Royals line-up for this dearth of power to be so prominent. While Sunday's game against the Cardinals showed you don't have to hit homers (1) to score runs (10), that's the exception and the team can't afford to rely on that idea.
Filed under: