Ned Yost media session: August 14

Ned Yost met with the media before tonight’s first game of the six-game homestand. The Royals and right-handed pitcher Jeremy Guthrie will be taking on the Oakland Athletics. Guthrie has improved in each of his first four games he has pitched for the Royals since being acquired in a July 20 trade with Colorado. “It has taken four starts just to get him settled in with a new environment, new teammates and new league. His stuff has progressively gotten better each time he has gone out. He is spotting his pitches really well and he has done a good job. I look for him now to continue that, just try to be consistent,” said Yost.

Lately the team has been hitting with power, including blasting 15 hitting home runs in their last 8 games. “I am not surprised by it. I think Alex Gordon is capable to hitting 30 home runs, (Mike) Moustakas is capable of hitting 25-30, (Eric) Hosmer is capable of hitting 25-30, Salvador Perez is capable to hitting 25 home runs and Lorenzo Cain is capable of hitting 20 home runs. I think we have guys that can hit home runs. We did this last year; it was late in the year before we really started showing some power. But I think we have guys that are capable of doing it and I want to see it on a more consistent basis,” said Yost. Kauffman Stadium is a big park and is a “pitcher’s park”. Yost said, “I think we can hit homers in this park. I think our guys have enough power to create those numbers I just talked about. Opposing teams come in and hit homers here, we can hit homers here.” He followed with “You can’t go up there and try to hit homers. You don’t try to hit homers but you have to be able to get the bat head out and everything has to work perfectly in order to do it. I think we have the skill set; we have the talent and the ability to do it. I definitely think down the road we have the ability to put a lot of balls into the seats.”