The Royals are winning a bunch of baseball games again, making it 6 of their last 9 with a walkoff against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon. The next morning, Royals insider Josh Vernier called into Fescoe In The Morning to chat about what he's seen, and why things are going so well right now.
"It always comes back to starting pitching," he said. "It always comes back to pitching and defense, especially when your offense has four quality bats. Your offense has two sluggers right now: Salvador Perez and Carlos Santana. Those are the only guys that instill in the opposing pitcher. Now Jorge Soler still can do damage, you still need to pitch him carefully, but this offense is so very Kansas City Royals baseball that we've seen for the past five, six years ... they can give you a quality performance offensively, but they're certainly not going to be the reason, more times than not, that you win the game.
"Brad Keller, to me, is back," he added. "The #1 Brad Keller is back. The opening day starter Brad Keller, Brad Keller the horse, that guy's back. Those early season concerns are now a distant memory. Mike Minor's put together his two best starts since returning to Kansas City. Brady Singer seemingly makes a claim as this team's #1 every time he takes the hill. And Kris Bubic just has that bulldog mentality up there, where he's sweating bullets, huffin and puffin, grinding through 5, 6, 7 innings, I think we'll see as the season progresses."
You can listen to the entire interview below:
