Rasmus Triples Twice for Cardinals; Eric Hosmer Leads KC Past Rangers

Players of the Day for Friday, May 27, 2011

American League

Eric Hosmer

Before Eric Hosmer even stepped foot onto a major league diamond, the raves were already coming. Judged the best prospect in the Royals' farm system, the KC brass could not keep him in AAA ball as he was hitting .439 with a 1.107 OPS with Omaha in the Pacific Coast League.

Since joining the Royals as their everyday first baseman, the 6'4", 230-lb. rookie has done nothing but impress. In Friday's 12-7, 14-inning win at Texas, Hosmer made yet another statement that he's here to stay, going 4-for-7 with a home run, double, two singles, four RBI and two runs. About the only thing he didn't do was sell hot dogs in the stands.

Since joining the Royals earlier this month, Hosmer is batting .284 with 4 homers and 11 RBI and has made the Royals respectable. Although Cleveland has a six-game lead in the division, Kansas City is hanging on in third place, 8 games back with Detroit is two games ahead of them.

Should the Indians stumble, Hosmer and the Royals will be there to pick up the pieces.

National League

This is probably not the best time for the Rockies to be hosting a three-game series with St. Louis.

Colby Rasmus

Once holding a healthy lead in the NL West, Colorado has hit the skids hard, losing seven of their last eight and the Cardinals made it four straight, beating the Rockies 10-3 win to open the series.

St. Louis jumped all over starter Ubaldo Jiminez, dropping him to 0-5 with 12 hits and six runs over six innings. The chief tormentor was center fielder Colby Rasmus, who singled twice and tripled off Jimenez, then added a two-run triple in the seventh to cap a 4-for-5 night with three RBI, two runs and a steal.

Rasmus has five triples already this season and is batting .287. The win put the Cardinals 3 1/2 up on Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Rockies continued slide has them four games behind San Francisco in the NL West. Arizona has taken over second place, 1 1/2 out.