Time for a break

Dalton Vitt

Major League Baseball has reached its season midpoint. Kansas City and St. Louis house the two best teams in the game. You didn’t slip back in time to the 1980s.

As surreal as it may feel, the Royals and Cardinals are back on top of the baseball world, and though there’s plenty of season left for collapses, injuries and total fan dismay, it’s time to appreciate what’s been done so far.

Heading into Tuesday’s All-Star Game and the four-day break that comes with it, St. Louis owns baseball’s top mark at 56-33 with a two-game lead over Pittsburgh in the NL Central. Meanwhile, KC owns the American League’s best record at 52-34 with a 4.5-game advantage over the upstart Twins.

Those divisional leads are miniscule with more than 70 games to play, but what’s the fun in falling love with Missouri running the baseball table if we have to concern ourselves with the future instead of fawning over the past?

… OK, so the future is more important. After all, no one remembers which team dominated the first half, only which team found success in October. But since we aren’t there yet, let’s pause and act like the first half of the regular season is all that matters.

Kansas City’s success has come on the heels of its unprecedented run in last year’s postseason despite national pundits and season projections systems dismissing any shot at a repeat.

What’s developed into a bit of a surprise, though, is that this season’s team has depended on an improved all-around offense that’s hitting for slightly more power (surprisingly good enough for eighth in baseball in slugging percentage) and, regardless of the means, is scoring more runs. The key for KC in 2014 was its pitching, and while this year’s bullpen has been as stiff as it was a year ago, the starting rotation slipped with the departure of James Shields and a smattering of injuries.

The offense has by no means been a juggernaut, but a major improvement from Mike Moustakas paired with statistical upgrades at designated hitter with Kendrys Morales and upticks in production elsewhere have balanced out the depressed pitching numbers.

Something truly frightening for the rest of the American League is that Yordano Ventura, the Royals’ No. 1 in the rotation, could hardly pitch any worse the rest of the year than he did in the first half. The same goes for Danny Duffy, who began the year second in the rotation. Those are two pitchers who, when their stuff is on and their tempers controlled, can toss seven innings of shutout ball with relative ease.

Couple their impending gains in the second half with the addition of Kris Medlen to the staff, whether it be in the rotation or bullpen, and you’ve got a recipe for the AL’s best team to get even better heading into August.

On the other side of the state, the Cardinals actually own a similar situation. They’ve been head-and-shoulders the premier team in baseball since Opening Day despite suffering through the season-ending loss of ace Adam Wainwright and the extended absence of middle-of-the-order mainstay Matt Holliday.

It’s another odd scenario where, as far as injury woes, things could (and probably should) be much worse. But Holliday will return shortly after the All-Star break, and the St. Louis rotation has held down the fort with outstanding performances from Michael Wacha, Lance Lynn and final-vote All-Star Carlos Martinez.

Perhaps the biggest and most welcome surprise for the Cardinals has been the bounceback of 36-year-old John Lackey. After slipping from a mediocre starter with an ERA consistently in the mid-3.00s to last year’s abysmal 4.30 ERA while with St. Louis, Lackey has found another groove with a 2.99 mark through 18 starts.

Offensively, the leap for second baseman Kolten Wong from occasional threat to top-of-the-order kickstarter has helped provide necessary depth to the Cardinal lineup.

By far the biggest issue for St. Louis has been its closest competition: the aforementioned Pirates, which just completed a three-game sweep of the Cardinals to close out the first half. These are two of the three or four best teams in the game trapped within the same division as one another. Jason Heyward doesn’t seem so concerned.

“It’s been a fun series against (the Pirates) this year,” Heyward said. “At our place walking them off three nights in a row, then they do it to us here two nights in a row.”

“Fun.” OK. Whatever you say, Jason.

Kansas City and St. Louis combined to have 12 players named to the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, and though the uproar about Royals fans overtaking the voting process consumed much of the talk leading into the game, these two teams are absolutely deserving of multiple representatives.

The first half of the year has been exciting for fans on both side of the state, and if the trend continues, we should watch both of these teams deep in the postseason. That’s another half-season down the road, but it isn’t out of the question.

A four-day break is a nice vacation period for baseball fans in Missouri before the rest of the journey begins.