Seven Royals now lead their positions in American League All-Star voting

The Royals recent losing ways haven’t stopped the enthusiasm of All-Star Game balloting.

With Monday’s vote totals, Royals now lead American League players at seven of the nine positions, with first baseman Eric Hosmer and designated hitter Kendrys Morales moving into the lead for the first time at their positions.

They join third baseman Mike Moustakas, shortstop Alcides Escobar, catcher Salvador Perez and outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon as top vote getters.

Only second baseman Omar Infante and a third outfielder, Alex Rios, aren’t leading. But Infante is second in the voting, trailing the Astros’ Jose Altuve by about 160,000 votes. Rios is fourth in the balloting for three outfield positions, although he has sat out all but 13 games because of a hand injury.

This from a team that has lost nine of its last 12 games.

But the fans are pounding the online ballot box.

Perez once again leads all AL vote getters at 4,419,620, and the two others who have received more than 4 million votes are Cain and Moustakas.

Seven starters from one team would be a first in All-Star Game history.

Six Yankees started the 1939 game, with 10 players from the team making the American League squad. That’s the most players supplied by a team from either league in All-Star history.

In 1957, Reds fans stuffed the All-Star ballot box and voted in seven of the eight position starters. Cardinals outfielder Stan Musial was the only non-Cincinnati player voted to start.

But Commissioner Ford Frick intervened and replaced two of the Reds, who wound up with five starters, and fan voting was discontinued until 1970.

In 1975, five Oakland A’s were voted into the starting lineup, and one year later, the five Reds were voted to start.

Three times, a team has as many as eight players participate in an All-Star Game. It’s happened twice in the past 15 years: the 2001 Mariners and 2004 Yankees.

The 87th All-Star Game is July 14 in Cincinnati. The Royals are bidding to have a player voted into the starting lineup for the first time since outfielder Jermaine Dye in 2000.

Hosmer had been running second behind the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera and Morales held fast behind the Mariners’ Nelson Cruz in the earlier voting.

Two more voting updates are scheduled before the balloting, which is being conducted online at MLB.com, ends at 11 p.m. July 2.

The pitchers and reserves for both squads will be determined by player ballot and by the All-Star managers, Ned Yost of the Royals and the San Francisco Giants’ Bruce Bochy.

Nine AL starters will be voted in by the fans, and Yost and the players will have 24 other positions to fill. Each team must have at least one representative on an All-Star team.

In the NL, it’s eight starters voted in — no designated hitter on the ballot — and 25 spots filled by Bochy and the players.

The 34th and final roster position on each team will be determined by the fans, who will cast votes from a list of five players in each league.

This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Seven Royals now lead their positions in American League All-Star voting."