Kansas City Royals: Historic Series

Overtime Heroics Editorial

2192 days ago

It does not seem like long ago that we all celebrated the single season home run record being broken by Mike Moustakas. Now we get to celebrate another historic series in Kansas City Royals history. The series against another rebuilding team in the Detroit Tigers will be well remembered for many Royals players. Jorge Soler broke the single season homerun record on September 3rd. In addition to Soler, Ryan McBroom also made history for himself. He recorded his first major league hit in his first major league at bat. Ryan O’Hearn even recorded his first ever walk-off home run. Now, lets take a look at what this historic night really means to Royals fans.

Soler Edges Out Moose

Jorge Soler broke Moustakas’ home run record with an absolute no doubter into the fountains at Kauffman Stadium. It was a three-run shot that was good for number 39 for the Royals Designated Hitter. “Soler Power” has sent baseballs travelling over three miles this season in a graphic released on the Royals Twitter page:

3.04 miles of ☀️💪 in 2019 (so far) pic.twitter.com/m4YLiurXLo

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) September 4, 2019

As a matter of fact his 39 longballs have travelled a total of 16,072 feet this year. Now the season is not over yet and it is hard to believe the team would shut Soler down this early. This historic night was capped off with a message from Moose himself to congratulate Soler. Soler continues the historic series by notching home run number 40 on September 4th. That home run makes the Royals the last team to have at least one player with at least 40 single season home runs.

McBroom’s Personally Historic Series

Less than a week ago Ryan McBroom was playing with the New York Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton Rail Riders. McBroom was originally drafted by the Royals in 2013. On September 3rd, he made his major league debut and made it full circle. In his very first major league at-bat he recorded his first major league hit. McBroom dropped a hit into shallow right-center for a single. Then he continued his own personal historic series with his first major league RBI on September 4th scoring Hunter Dozier. McBroom has certainly been making the case for himself to be a big leaguer long term.

Ryan O’Hearn is making his own history

Ryan O’Hearn has had nothing less than an up and down season. He has spent time in both the big league club and Triple-A. However, he got to record his own piece of history this series. In the series debut he pulled the Royals ahead for the win on his first ever walk-off home run. A deep hit to left field. He was greeted at home plate by his teammates and the happiest Ned Yost anyone has seen since 2015. O’Hearn has not made the best case for himself to be a permanent big leaguer this season, but he seems to be turning around.

Historic Series for Triples

In one of the biggest surprises of the 2019 season the Royals have been hitting a lot of triples. Not just one hitter that is fast on the base paths either. As of September 4th three different Royals are tied for the American League lead in triples: Whit Merrifield, Adalberto Mondesi, and Hunter Dozier. Whit Merrifield is also tied for a league lead in triples as a DH this year with four in just seven games at that position. Going into the season fans knew the Royals would be fast but no one saw Dozier having this many triples coming.

Avoiding last place in a historic way

The Royals and the Tigers are both engaging in a rebuild of their teams. Neither team really wanted to finish last in the division. Currently the Royals have a firm hold of fourth place by ten games. The Royals are keeping this lead by using Tigers pitchers to continue to make history this year. From Soler to Merrifield to McBroom to Mondesi, the Royals are almost having a fun year. What do you think? Head on over to the forums at Overtime Heroics to let us know!

Twitter: @cap_jrm