Royals' offense looking to kick into high gear

MINNEAPOLIS -- When is it going to happen?

"Maybe today's the day," Royals manager Ned Yost said as his club unlimbered their bats, looking for an offensive explosion in Sunday's series finale at Target Field.

The Royals' previous 10 games didn't offer much in the way of scoring, just an average of 2.9 runs a game.

"It's one of those things. We're going to have our games. We haven't been good by any means," designated hitter Billy Butler said before the game.

"We have the offense to score runs and I think we're going to. It's just not happening early. I just haven't gotten going early. It's a combination of things, but we have too much talent here for it not to turn around. We're going to put together a stretch where we're going to score a lot of runs and we're going to have another 10-game stretch where we score 2.9 a game. But it's going to be few and far between. We're going to have a 30-game stretch where we average five runs a game. It just happens that way. The next 10 could be a completely different story, and that's what we hope."

Yost has thought about shaking up the lineup but not yet.

"I've considered it, but it's way too early to do it. Way too early -- 35 at-bats these guys have," Yost said.

"It's more of a group-wide thing than it is one guy that you move down in the lineup, or two guys. It doesn't have much of an effect, in my opinion, when you do that type stuff. It's just a matter of time before these guys get going."

Butler, in the first 10 games, was well under .200 and without an extra-base hit.

"I'm getting better each day," Butler said. I've hit some balls hard, they haven't found some holes. I've also had some bad at-bats. I feel like I'm getting closer each day. Sometimes the at-bats don't show it and sometimes the outcome doesn't show it either, but I'm getting there. I'll learn from certain situations and make adjustments. That's what I do best -- make adjustments."

Yost senses that some of his hitters are not feeling comfortable at the plate.

"Once you get comfortable, you see the ball better, you drive the ball more, you're more relaxed in situations and you get better pitches to hit," Yost said. "These guys, every one of them is in the cage at 9 o'clock taking their turns, working their tails off so you just wait it out. But, literally, it can change in one day. Just one day and, all of a sudden, boom, here you go. That's the weird thing about it. You don't panic, you just keep working and stay patient until it hits."