Royals' Vinnie Pasquantino Sends Warning To Rest Of MLB On Surging Offense
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If the Kansas City Royals can hit like this, maybe the playoffs are still a realistic goal.
The problem with the Royals has never been that they're buried in the standings or can't win enough games to make the playoffs in theory. It's that the offense has been a black hole for nearly the entire season... until the All-Star break.
Kansas City has scored 63 runs in 11 games since the break, and they pounded the Atlanta Braves into submission with a 9-6 victory on Tuesday night. They've climbed to within two games of .500, and only sit four games out of a potential playoff spot.
After homering in the first inning against Braves starter Erick Fedde, first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino had an obvious message: This Royals offense isn't the same mediocre group the rest of the league has seen for most of the season.
"That’s the stuff that we weren’t doing at the beginning of the year,” said Pasquantino, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. “If like, OK, you get slapped in the face, how do you respond? And we did a nice job coming back in and responding.
"There’s been quite a few times this year where we haven’t responded. Sometimes it feels like if we give up runs, it’s like, ‘Uh oh.’ And tonight was definitely not one of those nights.”
The Royals still rank 28th in both runs scored and home runs on the season, hardly the sign of a playoff team. But the fact that their season isn't completely over says a lot. The rest of the league should have killed them off when they had the chance.
Now, with a third of the season still to play, the Royals can get back into this thing if the bats keep rolling.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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