Royals Improve to 23-25 Under Bell

After taking two out of three games from the Blue Jays over the weekend in Kansas City, the Royals are inching back towards the .500 mark under Buddy Bell, who has a 23-25 record since taking over. Over the next three days, we're going to find out just how much we've improved as the Royals open a three game series against the White Sox.

D.J. Carrasco picked up another win in the sweltering KC heat yesterday afternoon and improved to 5-4, with a 4.24 ERA. D.J. has come up big when given the chance in the rotation and he looks to have solidified a spot there for quite a while.

Zack Greinke has a two game winning streak going into the game tonight. He's never won three in a row and it won't be easy to do it this time either since he's facing Freddy Garcia who is 9-4 with a 3.60 ERA. Going into the break last season, Greinke was 1-6 with a 3.86 ERA. After the break he came on strong and posted a 7-5 record with a 4.04 ERA. Since the break this season, he is 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA. It's too early in his career to know for sure whether a pattern is developing or not, but if last season is any indication, he could save his season (currently 3-11, 5.66 ERA) by posting similar numbers to last season after the break.

Runelvys Hernandez continues to pitch well and he appears to be completely healthy again. He's improved to 8-9 with a 4.34 ERA. Unfortunately, MLB handed him a 10-game suspension for the Carlos Guillen beaning incident. Hernandez plans to appeal, but if he loses, he's going to miss two starts.

The bullpen has been even more impressive in recent weeks that the solid starting pitching has been. Going into the game yesterday, they had 3.09 ERA in the last 20 games. With Affeldt back and throwing serious heat, everyone has a more defined role now and they seem to be flourishing. Wood is working a lot of innings in middle relief. Sisco often follows him. Affeldt sets things up for MacDougal and Mac has been lights out, picking up 15 saves and posting a 3.47 ERA. I'd like to see his ERA a little lower, but he's on the right track.

The offense is coming around too. Over the past 17 games, they've scored more than 5 runs per game. Angel Berroa is finally starting to hit. He's hit 2 home runs in his past 5 games. Matt Stairs is quietly putting together another solid season (.258 AVG, 10 HR, 36 RBI) even though he's not playing every day (he's played in 78 games). Sweeney continues to swing the bat well when he's not dealing with one fluke injury or another. David DeJesus is also putting together a nice season (.291, 7 HR, 45 RBI, 2 SB), although I expected a little more from him.

Unfortunately, the Royals have almost no chance of catching the fourth place Tigers who are 49-49, 13 games ahead of the Royals. But after the horrific start, this season hasn't been about where we finish. It has been about development. In my opinion, we don't have enough veterans on this team to mentor all of these young guys, but time will tell. For now, let's just sit back and enjoy the ride.