Young bats seize potential, break out in Boston 

BOSTON -- The Royals did a little bit of everything Tuesday night. They hit three homers and doubled four times. They stole six bases. Every starting position player had a hit that contributed to the team’s 15 total.

And the Royals routed the Red Sox, 9-3, to even the four-game series at Fenway Park.

“I think guys are going in there just kind of sick of failing,” second baseman Michael Massey, who homered in the seventh inning, said. “We’re putting the work in off the field, the hitting coaches are doing a great job, and we feel really prepared there. I think a lot of it is not trying to do too much, which is interesting because we’re doing more.”

After one of the worst starts in franchise history, the Royals are starting to find their groove offensively. Sure, it’s coming in the dog days of a season barreling toward 100 losses. But the young Royals are hungry for improvement. And that’s part of what Kansas City set out to do in 2023 -- find the hitters who could learn on the job, improve and set the foundation for the future.

“We’ve got to grind at-bats out, we’ve got to compete for the last 60 games of the season,” general manager J.J. Picollo said on July 28. “… We need to set the tone for the things we need to do in 2024. Our guys are being tested pretty good right now. This is where we’re going to find out who has the moxie to step up and say, ‘I am a part of this moving forward.’”

In nearly two weeks since Picollo said that, the Royals are 8-3, have scored 68 runs in that span (6.1 runs/game) and entered Tuesday with an .807 OPS, ranked fifth-best in the Majors in that span.

Nearly everyone has contributed at the plate using adjustments they’ve made in the cages over the last month.

“The hardest thing as a young player is putting so much pressure on yourself to perform, that at times, you probably go up to the plate and think about 500 different things other than just seeing the baseball,” outfielder Drew Waters said after his 3-for-5 night. “I think everybody as a whole is starting to get to a point where they realize they can not only compete in this league but have success. It makes it easier to free up the mind and go up and compete.”

Tuesday’s game was close in the fifth inning, when the Red Sox scored two runs off Royals starter Brady Singer. But Singer never let the Red Sox catch up. The Royals righty allowed three runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings and earned his team-leading eighth win of the season as he watched the offense add on against the Red Sox bullpen.

“We didn’t put a whole lot of balls in play that first time through the lineup,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Then got to [Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford] a little bit, his pitch count got up. Did a really good job of expanding throughout against the bullpen, which allows us to have a little breathing room for Brady and the other guys.”

Maikel Garcia, who now has a 12-game hit streak, led off with a walk, then stole his 18th base of the season as Red Sox reliever Dinelson Lamet threw a wild pitch. Garcia never broke stride rounding second.

“When I stole the base, I just looked to the home plate for two or three seconds, and I saw the pitch in the dirt,” Garcia said. “I just kept going. Tried not to stop.”

Garcia scored on Massey’s groundout -- and the floodgates opened. The Royals scored two more in the sixth on MJ Melendez’s towering 10th home run of the season, an opposite-field shot over the Green Monster. They scored three more in the seventh.

The Royals were 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts on Tuesday and are now 26-for-27 in their last 11 games since July 27. After recording only 40 stolen bases in 56 games through the end of May, the Royals lead the American League with 72 steals in 59 games since June 1.

“I think that’s another thing. The more guys we get on base, pitchers are starting to make mistakes because they’re worried about other guys stealing,” Massey said. “... That’s where we can be dangerous. We can be dynamic in the sense of, we can play small ball when we have to and we can hit homers and doubles if we need to do that, too.

“Nowadays, that’s how you got to try to win because the good teams can do both. I think we’re showing we’re capable of doing both.”