Eric Hosmer and the Royals bats are heating up heading into Detroit. (photo/MLB)

Eric Hosmer and the Royals bats are heating up heading into Detroit. (photo/MLB)

What a change for the Royals offense. They scored a total of 22 runs over the weekend in Chicago as they swept the White Sox by scores of 7-2, 9-1 and 6-3 for their seventh in a row on Sunday. The Royals never trailed the entire weekend.

Jeremy Guthrie won his first start in 11 tries as the Royals scored five in the first inning on Friday. Danny Duffy threw seven shutout innings on Saturday and James Shields picked up his 8th win yesterday, but the story is the offense. Not only are they putting up runs, but they are starting to hit home runs.

Eric Hosmer finished the weekend with a homer and five RBIs. Billy Butler had a homer with four RBIs, Salvador Perez hit a three-run homer on Sunday and Mike Moustakas had three hits over the weekend including a homer and two RBIs. Lorenzo Cain drove in three runs over the weekend.

Before this current seven game win streak, the Royals were 29-32 and five games out of first place.  There were grumblings that the season would soon be lost, but the bats continued to show life as manager Ned Yost never pushed the panic button, believing in his hitters.  No doubt a different message from Dale Sveum as the hitting coach has turned around the offense.

Now, the Royals are 36-32, just 1.5 games behind the Tigers with four games against the Central Division favorites starting on Monday.