A week after getting hit in the right cheekbone, center fielder Mitch Maier is upbeat and encouraged that he will return before the season ends.</p><p>It definitely didn&#8217;t look that way last Wednesday when he was hit by Cleveland&#8217;s Cliff Lee on a sacrifice-bunt attempt. His eye was nearly swollen shut, and he suffered some fractures right below the eye.</p><p>A week later the news is much better.</p><p>&#8220;The swelling has gone down a lot,&#8221; Maier said. &#8220;It&#8217;s almost normal.</p><p>&#8220;I talked with the doctor (Tuesday) and he said I can do some running right now and some light swinging in the next couple of days. Hopefully, by the time I come off the DL (disabled list) I could be close. I&#8217;m not saying it&#8217;s going to be that day, but by Sept. 10 I will be good to go.&#8221;</p><p>It definitely will help Maier psychologically to get a few at-bats before the season ends just so he won&#8217;t go through the winter with his last time at the plate getting hit in the face.</p><p>Maier would like to build on what he has done in 19 games for the Royals. He has played solid defense and collected 19 hits in 56 at bats for a .339 average.</p><p>&#8220;I was getting adjusted and comfortable and this kind of puts a little wrinkle in it,&#8221; Maier said.</p><p>Royals manager Trey Hillman said Maier has excelled in tracking fly balls in center field, but offensively, he needs to develop more pop. All 19 of Maier&#8217;s hits have been singles.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s played as good as anybody and maybe better than anybody we put in center field,&#8221; Hillman said.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Pe&#241;a focusing on team</span></strong></p><p>Now that the Royals are going to give Alberto Callaspo an extended look at second base and Mike Aviles has locked down shortstop, Tony Pe&#241;a probably won&#8217;t get much playing time in the last month.</p><p>&#8220;I will try to help the team win, and other than that, trying to finish up on a good note,&#8221; Pe&#241;a said.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Staying with rotation</span></strong></p><p>Instead of jumping Gil Meche over Brandon Duckworth because of the off day Thursday, Hillman decided to stick with the same order and pitch Kyle Davies on Friday, Duckworth on Saturday and Meche on Sunday in the upcoming series at Detroit.</p><p>&#8220;We will stick with this simply because of availability,&#8221; Hillman said. &#8220;Hopefully it will be solid enough for us in production and keeping guys healthy and sucking up some innings out of the rotation.&#8221;