Goin' Streaking

The Royals last night pummeled the Tigers, 16-2. They slayed them, annihilated them, embarrassed them in front of their home crowd. It was glorious. Of note is the fact that the Royals had their most hits and runs of the season, and their largest margin of victory in 15 years. And perhaps more importantly:

THEY WON THEIR 8TH CONSECUTIVE GAME. 

Yep, the Royals, who finished the month of April with a record of 7-16, have completely turned things around with a scorching record of 46-31 since the beginning of May. They currently sit at 53-47, 6 games above .500 and 1.5 games behind Cleveland, with a 1 game lead on Tampa Bay for the 2nd Wild Card spot. Not too shabby considering how awful Alex Gordon, Brandon Moss, Raul Mondesi, Jr., Travis Wood, and others have played this season.

The Royals won their 8th straight last night largely from the strength of Eric Hosmer, who smacked his 1st career Grand Slam (only took him 7 years and 117 homers!), and Ian Kennedy, who allowed only 1 earned run and 3 hits with 4 strikeouts for his 4th win of the season. "We're going streaking!"

I thought it would be fun to take a look at the Royals notable wining streaks over the years:

Longest winning streak: 16 games in 1977. The team won 102 games that year.
Second longest winning streak: 14 games, set in 1994, right before the god-awful strike ended what could have been their first winning season since winning it all in 1985.

# of winning streaks of at least 10 games: 3
# of winning streaks of at least 9 games: 9

Recent years winning streaks
2016: 9 games
2015: 7 games
2014: 10 games

Next up for the Royals is the Boston Red Sox at Fenway. KC took 2 of 3 from them in KC back in June, with Kelvin Herrera notching 2 saves. The Red Sox sit in first place in the AL East, and have the second-fewest home losses in the AL (Yankees have fewest). Can the Royals extend the streak and salvage their 10th winning streak of 9 games? Hope so - it could be a pitcher's duel featuring two lefties - David Price versus Jason Vargas. MUST SEE TV!