Royals Starting Rotation Ranked Third Among Postseason Contenders
The Kansas City Royals have punched their ticket to the postseason. Though they suffered a 3-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Friday night, the Minnesota Twins also lost, resulting in elimination.
The Royals will enter the playoffs as a Wild Card team and will have one of the final two spots when all is said and done. They have been carried by the red-hot bat of MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. for much of the season.
However, Witt isn't the only one pulling his weight for the Royals. Their greatest strength this season has been their starting rotation. Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report ranked the rotation third out of 13 among postseason contenders.
"The one-two punch of Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans could make the Kansas City Royals sleepers for a deep run into October," Reuter wrote.
Lugo and Ragans are the top two starters in Kansas City's rotation. But they also have a few other options. Neither starter has actually started a postseason game, with Lugo's only playoff experience coming as a reliever.
Michael Wacha and Brady Singer round out the top four that will be used in the postseason, and Wacha might just be the X-factor. He is pitching like the starter the St. Louis Cardinals saw early on, and it's important to remember that he was the NLCS MVP in 2013 when St. Louis beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.
These four should make the Royals a formidable opponent in October, and it will be interesting to see how they fare against the rest of the American League's contenders.
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Curt Bishop is a freelance sports writer who graduated from Maryville University of St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the field of Communication and currently writes as a contributor for various platforms covering Major League Baseball. Curt’s work includes covering trade and free agency predictions, as well as rumors and news.