X

Have feedback / suggestions? Let us know!

MLB Baltimore OriolesKansas City RoyalsMLB Playoffs

Stopping Nelson Cruz Crucial For Kansas City Royals In ALCS

Nelson Cruz

Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

The upcoming American League Championship Series between the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles appears on paper to be a novel and thoroughly likable matchup. We’re looking at the two best defensive outfields in today’s game, so both lineups need to avoid that outfield grass at all costs. They’ll do so in vastly different ways, seeing that (as you’ve probably heard before) Baltimore has the most home runs in baseball and Kansas City has the least, while the Orioles stole less bases than any team in baseball and the Royals stole the most.

It’s speed against power, David versus Goliath and all those cliches and more, and it’s going to be nuts. There’s another old adage that should work in favor of Kansas City during this series: speed doesn’t slump. Nothing the Baltimore pitching staff can do will make Terrance Gore or Jarrod Dyson any slower, but who would the Royals most like to see struggle among Orioles batters?

Their chief concern going into this series is clearly the veteran slugger Nelson Cruz.

It turns out that the Orioles made one of the most important moves of the year when they penned a one-year deal with Cruz, as he’s turned out to be an excellent and vital addition to a lineup suddenly lacking pop due to the absence of the suspended Chris Davis. Cruz led MLB with 40 home runs in the regular season, and he’s already gone deep twice more in the playoffs for his 15th and 16th career postseason bombs. He’s currently the only Baltimore batter with more than three hits in this year’s postseason.

Cruz already raised his going rate on the future free agency market by going 6-for-12 in this year’s playoffs so far, but he also struck out three times. Only 23 players struck out more than Cruz in the regular season this year, and Kansas City pitchers have struck out 40 batters in 43 innings of postseason ball this season — more than any other team in the American League.

Game 1’s starter for the Royals, James Shields, holds Cruz to a .190 average over their careers, and Shields has already struck him out six times in 21 at-bats. A few timely Ks on Cruz just might decide the winner of the American League pennant.

Doug LaCerte is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @DLaC67, “like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.