Kansas City Royals

Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer made franchise history Wednesday as the team's first player to collect five hits, five RBI and five runs in a game, per MLB Stat of the Day.

Hosmer went 5-for-6 on the night with six RBI while hitting his 16th home run and stealing his fifth base of the campaign. The 27-year-old slugger was at the center of Kansas City's offensive onslaught Wednesday, as the team pounded out 16 runs on 22 hits against the Detroit Tigers in a 16-2 victory.

Of his seven professional campaigns since breaking into the majors in 2011, Hosmer is posting his best. Through 100 games, he's posted a .319/.375/.877 batting line with 54 RBI and 62 runs scored.  

Assuming he continues to rake at or near his current rate, Hosmer should challenge his career-high 25 round-trippers recorded last season and career-best .302 batting average from 2013.

Hosmer's success at the plate has translated to success from the Royals as well. The team has won eight straight games, including sweeps over the Tigers and White Sox in addition to two more wins over Detroit. The offense has emerged during that span, scoring four or more runs in seven of those contests.

Following a day off Thursday, Hosmer and the Royals will take the field in Boston on Friday two games behind the Cleveland Indians for the top spot in the AL Central. They also hold a one-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays—prior to the Rays' game against the Yankees on Thursday night—for the second wild-card spot.

The Kansas City Royals are reportedly in discussions with the Toronto Blue Jays to acquire starting pitcher Francisco Liriano, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

The potential trade would further bolster the pitching staff after the Royals acquired starter Trevor Cahill and relievers Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter on Monday.

Liriano, 33, has gone 6-5 with a 5.99 ERA, 1.67 WHIP and 70 strikeouts in 17 starts and 76.2 innings. While it hasn't been a great season for the veteran, he's shown flashes of effectiveness in recent years. In eight starts (10 appearances) for the Blue Jays in 2016 after being acquired last August, he went 2-2 with a 2.92 ERA and 1.18 WHIP.

The Royals would hope another change of scenery inspires those sorts of numbers from Liriano to strengthen the team's push to the postseason.

After starting 10-20, the Royals were staring down a potential crossroads: Would they become sellers given the large group of star players that would become free agents after the season? Was an era coming to a close in Kansas City?

Since then, the team has gone 42-27 and emerged as a postseason threat.

"We're in it," third baseman Mike Moustakas told Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. "We're going to go out there and try to win a World Series."

"We're trying to do something special here," starter Jason Hammel added. "The front office is doing whatever it can that they think will help. … It's a commitment to winning. It takes the question out of your mind: Not that we pay attention to the whole 'sellers' or 'buyers,' but it lets you know they’re committed in this run."

Fact: The Kansas City Royals had 19 hits and 16 runs in their win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night. Both were season highs.

Bleacher Report will be bringing sports fans the most interesting and engaging Cold Hard Facts of the day, presented by Coors Light.       

Source: B/R Insights 

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy will be out six to eight weeks as he recovers from an oblique strain, MLB.com's Jeffrey Flanagan reported Monday. 

According to Flanagan, Duffy suffered the injury during his start Sunday in a 10-1 defeat to the Cleveland Indians.

Pitching as both a reliever and starter in 2016, Duffy finished the year 12-3 with a 3.51 ERA and 188 strikeouts in 179.2 innings pitched. The Royals rewarded the left-hander with a five-year extension worth $65 million.

While Duffy has performed well on the mound, durability has been a concern for much of his MLB career.

He underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2012, which left him out for much of the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Since then, he has suffered minor problems, such as a rib-cage injury in 2014 and biceps tendonitis in 2015.

Any worries about Duffy's health are more heightened now not only because of his new contract but also the fact he's the Royals' ace. Kansas City doesn't have one of MLB's worst starting rotations, but the team's starters as a collective unit are arguably in the bottom half of the league.

Duffy's injury is a major blow to the Royals, who are already last in the American League Central with a 21-28 record.

Last March, a swarm of bees interrupted the Kansas City Royals’ spring-training game against the Colorado Rockies at Surprise Stadium in Arizona. These insects were everywhere.

On Sunday, they returned.

This time, Kauffman Stadium became one big hive.

The Kansas City Star passed along video of the bees, which “took refuge” in the upper deck. Luckily, beekeeper Jeff Diekmann is part of the grounds crew.  Last year, the hero was Lowell Hutchison:

The game was not delayed, and Kansas City fell to the Cleveland Indians, 1-0.

[Twitter, h/t NBC Sports]

Kansas City Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy is headed to the 10-day disabled list with a right hamstring strain, the team announced Friday.

Miguel Almonte has been recalled from the Double-A Northwest Arkansas Naturals to fill Kennedy's spot on the active roster. 

News of Kennedy's trip to the disabled list comes a day after he left his start against the Chicago White Sox with a trainer. In 4.1 innings Thursday night, Kennedy allowed six hits and four earned runs while striking out three. 

Kennedy is now 0-3 with a 3.03 ERA, 1.065 WHIP and 2.07 strikeout-to-walk rate through six starts. 

Prior to their Opening Day game against the Oakland Athletics, the Kansas City Royals honored Yordano Ventura, who died in a car accident in January.

Fox Sports Kansas City and Andrew Carter of KCTV5 in Kansas City, Missouri, shared video from the pregame ceremony:

The Kansas City Star's John Sleezer also shared a photo of Ventura's mother, Marisol Hernandez, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch:

Ventura made 93 starts for the Royals over four seasons. He went 38-31 with a 3.89 ERA. He also made nine postseason starts, posting a 4.66 ERA in 46.1 innings.

"I think the hard part is there's no real blueprint with how to deal with something like this," Kansas City pitcher Chris Young said of Ventura's death, per Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. "It takes time for all of us."

Royals manager Ned Yost offered a similar sentiment: "The grieving process is different for everybody. And you can't deny them or try to cut short their process. Everybody deals with it differently."

Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez suffered a knee injury in Venezuela's 11-10 victory over Italy in the World Baseball Classic on Saturday.

As seen in the following video courtesy of MLB's official Twitter account, the injury occurred on a play at the plate when Royals teammate and Italy catcher Drew Butera fell into Perez's knee:

Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball reported the initial diagnosis appears to be inflammation, and he is expected to be OK. Venezuela's official team account announced an MRI revealed no structural damage, per Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com.

Venezuela manager Omar Vizquel said after the game that Perez was set to undergo testing, according to ESPN.com: "The update on Salvador Perez is he's got a loose knee, and he's got to go to the clinic and have some X-rays done to see if everything is going to be fine with him. So he's a question mark right now."

Per ESPN's Marly Rivera, Perez reportedly reached out to the Royals to tell them the injury isn't severe.

Perez was enjoying a strong game prior to being removed, as he was 2-for-4 with one home run, two runs and two RBI.

The 26-year-old is among the best catchers in baseball with four consecutive All-Star appearances and Gold Gloves to his credit, as well as a World Series MVP nod in 2015.

Last season, Perez hit a career-high 22 home runs to go with a .247 batting average and 64 RBI.

If Perez misses additional time in the WBC, Robinson Chirinos is in line to see the bulk of the innings for Venezuela behind the plate.

Should his ailment impact Perez's availability for the MLB regular season, Butera will be forced into service for the Royals.

With one more year remaining on his current deal, Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer is already looking ahead to 2018. 

Hosmer told Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal on Sunday he'll enter free agency next winter should he and the Royals fail to agree to a new contract by Opening Day.

"I don't know if it's going to heat up now in spring training," he said. "But during the season, I don't like being bothered with that stuff. If something doesn't happen here, I don't see anything during the season really happening."

According to Rosenthal, the Royals expect the 27-year-old and agent Scott Boras will want a 10-year deal.

Rosenthal noted Prince Fielder and Joey Votto signed for nine and 10 years, respectively, but that Hosmer hasn't compiled an offensive profile similar to those two players. 

In addition, neither situation has arguably justified such a significant investment.

Fielder's offense declined after he signed with the Detroit Tigers, and a neck injury forced him to retire last year. Votto's production has been more steady, but the rebuilding Cincinnati Reds are still saddled with his contract for another seven seasons, which is an albatross on their payroll.

Hosmer should be wary of overestimating his value on the open market. 

He had a career-high 25 home runs and 104 RBI in 2016, but his WAR fell to minus-0.2 from 3.4 in 2015, per FanGraphs.

His .266 batting average was the second-worst of his MLB career. He also dropped off significantly defensively. According to FanGraphs, he ranked 16th among 17 qualified first basemen in defensive runs saved (minus-six) and 15th in Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 games (minus-6.1).

Edwin Encarnacion was in a similar position to Hosmer last offseason. Poised to be one of the top sluggers on the free-agent market, he turned down a four-year offer from the Toronto Blue Jays last November that was worth around $80 million, according to FanRag Sports' Jon Heyman.

Encarnacion eventually signed with the Cleveland Indians for three years and $60 million. The contract has a $20 million club option in the fourth year, but Encarnacion, 34, has slightly less long-term stability than if he would've accepted Toronto's offer.

Assuming he and the Royals don't agree to a long-term extension, Hosmer will be one of the top first basemen available in free agency in 2018. However, that alone may not be enough to ensure he can have his contract demands met. 

Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Brian Flynn will be out for a minimum of eight weeks after falling through the roof of his barn, Josh Vernier of 610 Sports in Kansas City, Missouri, reported Tuesday.

"He was working on his barn and fell through the roof," Royals manager Ned Yost said Tuesday, per the Kansas City Star's Rustin Dodd. "So he took a pretty good tumble, knocked himself out. So he’s going to be about eight weeks behind everybody else."

Yost told reporters that Flynn suffered a broken rib and three non-displaced fractures in his vertebrae.

After spending the 2015 season and the beginning of the 2016 campaign with Kansas City's Triple-A affiliate, the 26-year-old made his Royals debut May 6 in the team's 7-1 defeat to the Cleveland Indians. In 36 appearances, Flynn posted a 2.60 ERA and a 4.03 FIP, per Baseball-Reference.com.

Prior to the injury, Flynn had a good chance at claiming a spot in Kansas City's bullpen coming out of spring training, especially since the team has to replace Wade Davis and Luke Hochevar.

Given the timetable for Flynn's return, the left-hander will almost certainly begin the 2017 season on the disabled list. The Royals begin the year April 3 on the road against the Minnesota Twins, and Flynn will be back mid-April at the earliest.