2009 Kansas City Royals season

Coaching staff changes Following the 2008 season, third base coach Luis Silverio and hitting coach Mike Barnett were not retained on Trey Hillman's coaching staff. In October 2008, the Royals hired Kevin Seitzer as the team's new hitting coach and John Gibbons as bench coach. Through trades, Kansas City sought to acquire relief pitching, a middle infielder, and a starting pitcher. The Royals pursued both RHP Kyle Farnsworth and RHP Brandon Lyon, and signed Farnsworth to a two-year contract. The Royals also signed LHP Horacio Ramírez, who was previously with the team in 2008, The acquisition of Furcal would have resulted in the Royals moving SS Mike Avilés to second base. Kansas City bowed out of talks with Furcal after they could not work around their payroll. The Boston Globe reported that the Royals had "serious discussions" concerning a trade of RHP Zack Greinke to the Atlanta Braves for OF Jeff Francoeur. Reports about Kansas City's purported interest in Francoeur also surfaced weeks before the Winter Meetings but there had been no concrete evidence that the Royals pursued such a deal. (re-signed) • C John Buck • RHP Kyle Davies • RHP Zack Greinke • 2B Mark Grudzielanek (declined) • 1B Mike Jacobs In November, the Royals acquired CF Coco Crisp from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for RP Ramón Ramírez. In December, the Royals did not tender contracts to OF Joey Gathright, LHP John Bale, RHP Jairo Cuevas, and 2B Jason Smith. Bale was later re-signed on a one-year deal, In January, the Royals agreed to a four-year, $38 million contract with RHP Zack Greinke. ==Regular season==

Season standings Record vs. opponents ==Monthly summaries==

April The Royals' season opener against the Chicago White Sox was originally scheduled for April 6 but was postponed due to snow forecasts in the Chicago area. The game was rescheduled for April 7, which was originally an off-day for both teams. The Royals lost the first game of the season after Kyle Farnsworth gave up a game-losing, three-run homer to Chicago's Jim Thome. After losing the first game to Chicago, the Royals won two of three games against Chicago to open the series. The Royals played the New York Yankees on April 10 at the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium for their home opener. Peña is the team's third-string catcher and was listed as designated hitter for the day. Despite the bad news, the Royals beat the Rangers 12–3 in the opening game of the series. In the second game against the Rangers (on April 18), RHP Zack Greinke recorded his first career shut-out and extended his scoreless inning streak to 34. The streak dated back to the 2008 Kansas City Royals season. After trailing 5–3 in the bottom of the eighth, the Rangers tied the game at 5 by the ninth inning after Royals set up pitchers Ron Mahay and Jamie Wright allowed two runs. Texas' Michael Young hit a game-winning leadoff home run off of reliever Kyle Farnsworth's second pitch of the inning. Bannister and Jamie Wright pitched eight shut-out innings before closer Joakim Soria returned from an eight-day hiatus to close out the 2–0 victory. Zack Greinke's scoreless innings streak ended at 38 when an unearned run was scored after an errant throw by Mike Avilés in a 6–1 Royals victory over the Detroit Tigers. The run was unearned so Greinke's ERA stayed at 0.00 and his record improved to 4–0 on the season. Greinke is the first Royals player to appear on the magazine cover since pitcher David Cone on April 5, 1993, for the magazine's baseball preview. On April 29 Zack Greinke was the first pitcher of the season to record his fifth win and allowed only two runs to the Blue Jays in an 11–3 victory. This brought his ERA for the season from 0.00 to 0.50. In the third game, the Royals were no-hit by Scott Baker through six innings before an offensive but then suddenly unleashed an offensive flurry in the seventh, scoring five runs to roar ahead and hold on for a stunning 7–5 victory. Zack Greinke threw his third complete game in a 3–0 shutout of the White Sox on May 4 and improved his record to 6–0 on the year with a 0.40 ERA. Greinke lost his first game of the season to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on May 9 in a 1–0 loss. Greinke pitched a complete game and his ERA rose to 0.51. He was placed on the disabled list and Sidney Ponson was sent to the bullpen in exchange for Luke Hochevar being called up from Triple-A Omaha. In his first appearance of the season, Hochevar lasted only two innings and allowed eight runs in a 12–3 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Entering the game, Kansas City's team ERA led the American League, but took a hit with Hochevar's performance. The game was held at Kauffman Stadium and had a sell-out crowd of 38,353 along with many other games in the season selling out for Greinke's starts. The Royals split their four-game home series against the Orioles. On May 19, Kansas City trailed Cleveland 5–2 entering the ninth inning but accomplished their biggest comeback victory of the season. After two consecutive home runs by Mike Jacobs and Mark Teahen, the Royals rallied to a 6–5 victory after a sacrifice fly by Willie Bloomquist brought David DeJesus home for the winning run. the Royals fell to a 21–22 record and under the .500 mark for the first time since April 11 when they were 2–3. Kansas City won the final game 3–2 and regained a .500 record on the season. By the end of the month, the Royals began to slip from the top of their division standings in the American League Central, especially following a three-game sweep by the Chicago White Sox left the team with a 23–27 record. An 11–17 record in May dropped the Royals down to fourth place in the division. June Looking to rebound from a sub-par month of May, the Royals began June with a three-game series at Tampa Bay on June 2, but continued to flounder, dropping all three games. They lost their eighth game in a row on June 5 at Toronto, but broke the losing streak the next day thanks to a strong performance from Luke Hochevar. In the 2009 Major League Baseball draft held on June 9 the Royals selected RHP Aaron Crow with the 12th overall selection. Crow attended the University of Missouri, was born in nearby Topeka, Kansas, and was a longtime Royals fan prior to being selected with the team. That same day, the Royals' defense and bullpen allowed eight unanswered runs to the Indians in an 8–4 loss. The loss dropped the Royals to fifth place in the American League Central. Roster Game log Please do not edit this line: OgreBot End--> ==Player stats==

Batting Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases Pitching Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs; BB = Walks; SO = Strikeouts ==Awards and honors==

Player of the week April 13–19: Zack Greinke, shared with Ian Kinsler (Texas Rangers). Pitcher of the month April: Zack Greinke. Pepsi clutch performer of the month April: Zack Greinke. == Farm system ==