The Kansas City Royals HiV LOB, Pain & Suffering Known as Weeks Nine, Ten, Eleven

Rustin Dodd put together an interesting piece on the Royals Web site today. It discusses something positive for a change, the "right direction" in which the team is headed, now five years removed from the Carlos Beltran trade, a transaction that sent Beltran to Houston in exchange for John Buck, Mark Teahen, and Mike Wood. Omaha Royal outfielder David De Jesus was called up from Triple-A as Beltran's replacement. While the club has done a lot to change its losing ways in the past five years, the road ahead is still a long one. The first three weeks in June didn't make it much smoother. Your semi-regular look at the Royals hits versus stranded runners, after the jump.

Week Nine

6/2 @ TB: 2-6 (L); six hits, four stranded
6/3 @ TB: 0-9 (L); two hits, four left aboard
6/4 @ TB: 2-3 (L); six hits, three floaters
6/5 @ TOR: 3-9 (L); five hits, four remainders
6/6 @ TOR: 6-2 (W); nine hits, four left on base
6/7 @ TOR: 0-4 (L); seven hits, six stranded

For the week: 35 hits, 13 runs scored, 25 stranded.

Week 10

6/9 @ CLE: 4-8 (L); 12 hits, eight left on
6/10 @ CLE: 9-0 (W); 13 hits, three left aboard
6/11 @ CLE: 3-4 (L); nine hits, nine runners left
6/12 vs CIN: 1-4 (W); six hits, four stranded
6/13 vs CIN: 4-7 (W); 14 hits, eight left
6/14 vs CIN: 1-7 (W); nine hits, four abandoned

For the week: 63 hits, 34 runs, 36 left aboard.

Week 11

6/16 vs ARI: 0-5 (W); 10 hits, eight left on base
6/17 vs ARI: 12-5 (L); 13 hits, 13 left
6/18 vs ARI: 12-5 (L); 12 hits, six stranded
6/19 vs StL: 10-5 (L); six hits, three left
6/20 vs StL: 7-1 (L); five hits, seven left aboard
6/21 vs StL: 12-5 (L); nine hits, four stranded

For the week: 55 hits, 26 runs scored, 41 left on base.

Whew.

As you can see, a pretty dismal week nine, some improvement in 10, and mild regression in week 11. On the whole, though, a 6-12 record over the course of three weeks is going to do zero standings favors. The point of this feature was to initially analyze how well the Royals were playing their version of small ball, but when a pitching staff gets rocked like this one has so far in June, it matters very little. The Royals have produced 568 hits, scored a mere 286 runs, and stranded 552 base runners. Whether it's Inter-League, divisional, or whatever, those numbers are just plain painful. If in fact the franchise is headed in the right direction, it has to find to way to overcome big bumps in the road like the one they're stuck on right now called June 2009.