The Kansas City Royals, after so many years of irrelevance, broke through in a big way from 2013-2017. They rejuvenated a dormant fanbase and rekindled a passion for baseball in a town starving for something good. There were many moments that defined this team throughout those years. This is a list of the Top 25 moments. They could be specific moments in time or something that spanned most or all the era. Our No. 23 moment:
#23 – Danny Duffy sets Royals single game record for most strikeouts in a game.
The question about Danny Duffy had never been his stuff. He had the ability to be a top of the rotation pitcher with the possibility of being the Royals ace. The trouble was his consistency. Duffy came up in 2011 with Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, and Lorenzo Cain. He struggled his first year, going 4-8 with a 5.64 ERA in twenty starts.
The next two seasons Duffy would battle injuries and stints in the minors before coming up in 2014 as a reliever. On May 3rd, he became a starter and finished the season as a key part of the Royals rotation. In 2015, he started as a starter, struggled, and got demoted to the bullpen. In 2016, he made an adjustment, pitching solely out of the stretch, and was dominating the league.
This leads us to a matchup versus the Tampa Bay Rays on August 1, 2016. Zack Greinke had held the Royals record for most strikeouts in a game with fifteen.
Duffy retired the first nine hitters with seven strikeouts. Duffy was also facing Rays ace, Chris Archer, and the scored remained tied at zero through six innings. Morales hit a solo home run to open the scoring. That would be all the runs Duffy would need.
Duffy had allowed only one runner to reach base through seven innings, a walk to Logan Forsythe in the fourth inning. Through seven innings, Duffy also had struck out fourteen hitters and had a no-hitter going.
Desmond Jennings would break up the no-hitter with a leadoff double in the eighth, the only hit Duffy would give up all night. Duffy would then strikeout Tim Beckham to tie Greinke’s record. With the record in sight, Duffy struck out Nick Franklin to end his night.
His final line: 8 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 16 K. The sixteen strikeouts would set a team record.
The Royals would go onto win, 3-0. Duffy would finish the year 12-3 with a 3.51 ERA and establish himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball.
