Hitting coach Sveum keeps the Royals’ line moving during KC’s second straight World Series

On the ground floor of Citi Field, dozens of reporters and precisely zero baseball players milled around an empty Royals clubhouse. A few feet across the hallway, the lone, consistent sound was the crack of a bat inside an indoor cage.

“You see him in there, throwing flip in his jeans?” pitching coach Dave Eiland asked as he walked past the cage.

Indeed, a few minutes later, Royals hitting coach Dale Sveum emerged from the cage clad in an olive dress shirt, blue jeans and black loafers. He stepped into duty because Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez wanted to take a few cuts. Sveum obliged, even if the team had settled into their Manhattan hotel only about nine hours earlier.

During the first two World Series games, both captured by Kansas City, the Royals released a nationwide reminder on the relentlessness of their offensive approach. The hitters chopped down a pair of oaks, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, without much difficulty. Their collective philosophy stems from the scouting acumen of general manager Dayton Moore’s front office, who assembled a roster of players capable of making consistent contact, and the tutelage of Sveum, who has helped this group unlock its strengths.

Sveum cuts an imposing figure. Tattoos line both of his forearms. Many of his axioms cannot be printed in this newspaper. But one can, his mantra to “keep the line moving,” which transformed into a battle cry after the Royals completed a comeback from a four-run deficit in Game 4 of the American League Division Series in Houston.

Sveum dislikes discussing mechanics. He preaches the importance of head positioning during swings. He emphasizes winning “the 3-2 battle” in full counts, he said. He has opened the minds of his hitters to the gospel of video study, a practice most of the group now embrace. He translates the team’s scouting reports into usual chunks for his players.

“Dale has stressed from day one to do your homework,” manager Ned Yost said. “Guys are much more prepared. They prepare themselves much more. Dale has a knack of getting through to these guys and getting them to understand their strengths and their weaknesses and how to be successful. He’s just the best hitting coach I’ve ever been around.”

Since Sveum took over as hitting coach on May 29, 2014, the Royals have posted a .600 winning percentage in the regular season and postseason, the equivalent of a 97-win team across 162 games. The offense rose from 14th in runs in 2014 last season to seventh in 2015. They did so while using a unique style, eschewing patience and walks in favor of aggressiveness and hard contact.

“His approach is easy,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “Be aggressive and swing.”

The Royals’ style can be personified by leadoff hitter Alcides Escobar, who is open about his propensity for hacking at the first pitch he sees every night. He has swung at the first pitch in all six American League Championship Series games and both World Series games. He is hitting .364 this postseason with a .965 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

During the regular season, the Royals ranked last in both walks and strikeouts. The group ranked 27th in swinging strikes and tied with Oakland for the highest rate of contact in the game, according to FanGraphs. To Sveum, the approach allows the team to erase a deficit at any time.

“The biggest thing is just making contact,” Sveum said. “That will always you give you a chance to come back. Having balls that have a chance to hit the outfield grass, somebody making an error. We’ve had some comebacks, basically all based on one miscue.”

His story checks out. Houston shortstop Carlos Correa flubbed a potential double play in the eighth inning of ALDS Game 4. The Royals toppled David Price in Game 2 of the ALCS when a fly ball fell between second baseman Ryan Goins and Jose Bautista, sparking a four-run flurry. The winning run in Game 1 of the World Series reached base on a fielding error.

The team reached a pinnacle of plate coverage in Game 2. Kansas City faced deGrom, the headliner of New York’s pitching staff. DeGrom generated only three whiffs in his 94 pitches. The Royals did not swing and miss at a single fastball. That had never happened before in deGrom’s major-league career.

In these games, the Royals rarely look overmatched. They can discern sequences and predict pitches. The combination of their on-field talent and scouting reconnaissance has the team two victories away from its first title since 1985.

“There has to be an edge in championship-caliber ball,” reserve outfielder Jonny Gomes said. “There has to be that next gear. There has to be that next level. There has to be that last leaf and that last rock that’s flipped over to be a champ.”

All big-league clubs employ advance scouts, and all can assemble reports on opposing pitchers. A critical task for any coach is relating the information to players in an understandable fashion. Sveum excels at this task, the players say. He still speaks their language.

His resume helps. Sveum hit 25 homers for Milwaukee as a 23-year-old in 1987. He was a switch hitter, which makes him conversant with the entire roster. He spent 12 years in the big leagues, coached in Milwaukee and Boston, managed the Cubs from 2012 to 2013.

“He doesn’t forget how hard it is to hit,” Moustakas said. “And the way he is able to communicate with us, it helps us out.”

Sveum prefers to dispense information — how often a pitcher uses certain pitches in certain counts, for example — rather than descend into technical jargon. He trusts his players to understand their swings. He does not like to cloud their minds with advice.

“That’s the worst thing as a hitter, to have your hitting coach say something like ‘I would like you to have your hands a little lower,’ or whatever,” Hosmer said. “That’s not what you need to be thinking about.”

Added Sveum, “My job is to watch and see what makes them good. When you’re going good, what’s happening?”

Sveum seeks to accentuate strengths, rather than correct weaknesses. When it comes to video, he provides as much information as the player seeks. Ben Zobrist watches about four hours per series, Sveum said. Escobar watches almost none.

During games, Sveum maintains constant dialogue with his group, conferring with them about strategy and what to expect at the plate. But in between the lines, all he can do is watch.

“When it comes to (the big moments), we find a way, and know that, OK, we’ve just got to get the line moving,” Sveum said. “Somehow, somebody get on, and we’ll get the line moving. And that’s basically what we’ve done.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Hitting coach Sveum keeps the Royals’ line moving during KC’s second straight World Series."