Royals battle back from adversity in first half of season
By DAVID BOYCE
The Kansas City Star
Sunday marked the official beginning of the second half of the season for the Royals, and despite a 9-6 loss to St. Louis, they showed an ability to fight back just the way they recovered from a 12-game losing streak.
When the Royals fell 16 games below .500, their confidence could have been crushed and they could have just accepted another 90-plus loss season.
The way the Royals climbed out of that rough stretch is the one thing that sticks out in manager Trey Hillman’s mind concerning the first half of the season.
“Obviously, I wished we hadn’t lost seven in a row, 12 in a row, but we rebounded pretty well from that and played pretty good baseball,” Hillman said.
The key now for the Royals is to avoid another slump before the All-Star break in two weeks.
“More than anything else, if we can continue to play well and get some runs before the All-Star break, hopefully our confidence will continue to grow,” Hillman said.
DeJesus down
Royals outfielder David DeJesus took an awkward tumble in the bottom of the first inning when he tried to score from second on a single by José Guillen but was tagged out by Cardinals catcher Jason LaRue.
LaRue, who played for the Royals last year, stood in front of the plate and as DeJesus tried to avoid the tag, he tripped over LaRue’s foot and landed on the catcher’s mask.
DeJesus hurt the lower right side of his rib cage and is listed as day to day. DeJesus walked in his only plate appearance, so his 13-game hitting streak remains alive.
“It’s bruised,” Hillman said of DeJesus’ injury. “Sometimes it’s 24 hours to see what you’ve got, and sometimes it’s 48 hours. We will see how it is (today).”
Bye, interleague play
Although the Royals lost the last two games against the Cardinals they have plenty of reasons to be sad that interleague play is over for this season. Kansas City went 13-5 against the National League.
“We put together a pretty good run in interleague,” Hillman said.
Beating up on the National League is the main reason the Royals will finish the month of June with a winning record. Kansas City is 15-11 in the month with one game left.
Upcoming series
The Royals begin a four-game series at Baltimore tonight when Zack Greinke, 7-4 with a 3.40 ERA, goes up against left-hander Brian Burres, 6-5, 5.29.
On Tuesday Luke Hochevar, 5-5, 4.60, faces right-hander Radhames Liz, 2-0, 5.70.
Wednesday, Gil Meche, 6-8, 4.66 will face right-hander Daniel Cabrera, 5-4, 4.53.
In the series finale Thursday, Kyle Davies, 3-1, 3.34 against lefty Garrett Olson, 6-3, 4.76.
Good crowds
The Royals drew 31,803 fans for Sunday, bringing the three-game series total to 105,700.
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KansasCity.com for Royals updates and Sam Mellinger’s “Ball Star” blog
To reach David Boyce, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4745 or send e-mail to dboyce@kcstar.com
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