2011 Kansas City Royals season

Did You Know?

• On November 10, 2010, the Royals traded David DeJesus to the Oakland Athletics for Vin Mazzaro and minor league pitcher Justin Marks.
• Mazzaro had a 10–17 record with a 4.72 ERA in 41 career major league appearances for the Athletics in 2009 and 2010.

Pitching

Bruce Chen began the season with a 4–1 record and a 3.59 ERA in seven starts before being placed on the 15-day disabled list on May 11 with a strain. Vin Mazzaro was recalled from Omaha and made his first start on May 11 against the New York Yankees. In his second appearance on May 16, Mazzaro allowed 14 earned runs in 2 1/3 relief innings, a team record and the worst pitching performance in the majors since the early 20th century. He was optioned to Omaha with a 22.74 ERA over 6 1/3 innings, and Everett Teaford was called up.

Regular season

The Royals opened at home on March 31 against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, their first Opening Day meeting since 1975. Luke Hochevar, the team's 2006 first-round draft pick, made his first Opening Day start, allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings in a 4–2 loss. Jered Weaver threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, and Fernando Rodney earned the save. Attendance was 40,055, the season's highest home crowd. Three Royals rookies—Aaron Crow, Tim Collins, and Nathan Adcock—made their major league debuts in that game. After two games against the Chicago White Sox, the Royals finished their home opening series at 4–2 with a half-game division lead, their best such start since 2004. Three wins came on the final at-bat, and the last three games went to extra innings. The team occupied first place on eight days in the first half of April, winning 10 of 14 games, but lost nine games in the latter half and fell 4 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Indians. During a six-game road losing streak, Royals pitchers surrendered 17 home runs with a 7.88 ERA, including three games in Cleveland during the Indians' 14-home-game winning streak. At 14–13, it was only the third time in 22 years the Royals ended April with a winning record, the last being 2009.