Yastrzemski slugging atop lineup as KC improves to 6-1 on homestand

KANSAS CITY -- Growing up in New England, Mike Yastrzemski actually liked hockey more than baseball, lacing up his skates every year until he was a junior in high school.

Baseball was in his blood, though, and it was the sport he was always more talented in, now having turned it into a seven-year MLB career.

But the hockey mindset has stayed with him, especially when he hits leadoff.

“One of my hockey coaches used to tell me, ‘In the first shift, you need to hit somebody or get hit,’” Yastrzemski said. “And that’s kind of the mindset that I like. Put yourself in the game right away, get the blood flowing and be ready. That way, you don’t get caught by surprise later on in the game when there’s an important moment. Diving right in right away is kind of fun.”

There’s no better way to do that in baseball than a leadoff home run.

Atop the lineup again on Monday night, Yastrzemski put the Royals on the board right away with another leadoff blast, catapulting Kansas City to a 4-3 win over the Rangers at Kauffman Stadium and their fourth consecutive victory.

It was Yastrzemski’s fourth home run with the Royals and third as their leadoff hitter, all of which have come in August. That ties Johnny Damon (September 1998) and Alex Gordon (August 2012) for the most leadoff home runs in a single month in Royals history.

Damon (1998) and Gordon (2011) share the club record for leadoff home runs in a single season (five).

The early blast for Yastrzemski and the Royals set the tone as a new, still important series began Monday, this one a four-game set against the Rangers, the team now chasing the Royals in the American League Wild Card standings. Kansas City has now won six of seven on this current 10-game homestand, and Monday’s win clinched a season series win over the Rangers (4-0) -- something the Royals hadn't done since 2014.

Kansas City is now just a half-game behind Cleveland, and 3 1/2 games out of an AL Wild Card spot. The Red Sox, Yankees and Mariners are all tied as the current Wild Card teams.

In other words: This playoff race is getting interesting, and the Royals are doing everything they can to make it so.

“We’re looking great, man,” closer Carlos Estévez said after notching his 32nd save of the season, a new career high. “It doesn’t matter who’s out there pitching or what’s going on. I feel like it’s never done for us right now.”

The Royals needed more than Yastrzemski’s power Monday and added two big blasts from Vinnie Pasquantino (two-run shot in the third) and Maikel Garcia (solo blast in the fifth), backing starter Michael Wacha’s 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball.

The Royals did not acquire Yastrzemski to be their leadoff hitter; at least that’s not what they were thinking about when they traded for the Giants' outfielder in a last-minute Trade Deadline deal. They were mainly thinking about another veteran lefty bat they could platoon in right field with Randal Grichuk, whom the Royals had acquired just a few days before the Deadline.

But it only took manager Matt Quatraro two or three days with Yastrzemski on the roster to start thinking about him hitting leadoff and how that would change the look of the lineup.

The Royals needed to shake some things up offensively. Jonathan India, the Royals’ leadoff hitter for all but the 10 games he hadn’t played before Aug. 6, was struggling. Yastrzemski had some experience hitting leadoff in San Francisco.

In Kansas City, he’s been a boost to the offense, with eight of Yastrzemski’s 10 hits having gone for extra bases, giving him a .578 slugging percentage and .905 OPS. Yastrzemski does not play against lefty pitchers -- as he’s hitting just .139 in left-on-left matchups this year and .214 in his career -- which helps put him in better spots to succeed. The Royals also like the balance that having a lefty batter at the top gives their lineup against right-handed starters, with the right-handed Bobby Witt Jr. hitting second and lefty Pasquantino hitting third.

And it helps later in the game, like Monday, when the Rangers brought in a lefty reliever as the Royals’ lineup turned over in the sixth inning. Quatraro turned to Grichuk as a pinch-hitter, all while Witt loomed on deck.

“[Yastrzemski’s] composure at the plate is what stands out to me the most,” Quatraro said. “A lot of guys are fired up early in the game to get on something. And he takes pitches. If it’s a strike, he’ll swing, but otherwise, he’s going to make you work.”