Royals return to Fall Classic with more power added to speed, defense, pitching

The Kansas City Royals, a team that had nine consecutive losing seasons (including four seasons of at least 100 losses) from 2004 to 2012, are making a repeat visit to the World Series.

The Royals are the first team to win consecutive American League pennants since Texas in 2010-2011, but the Rangers lost both World Series. Toronto won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-1993.

Not long ago, the Royals were a young and talented team going nowhere. Their turnaround started in the second half of 2014. On July 21, they were 48-50 and irrelevant in the AL Central. Then, after a team meeting where they determined to play up to their potential, the Royals went on a 22-5 tear and wound up as the AL wild card team.

This year, they won their first division title since 1985, the year they won the former AL West.

They came to spring training this season wanting to show last season's appearance in the World Series wasn't a fluke. They started the season with seven consecutive win and took over first place for good in the AL Central on June 8.

They beat pitching-rich Houston in the Division Series and power-happy Toronto for the AL pennant:

Here are things to know about the Royals:

* The Royals are playing in their second consecutive World Series. What's different about the team? With 44 home runs more home runs than a year ago, the Royals have more power than last time around when they were an all pitching and defensive team that found just enough ways to score runs. The player who made the biggest difference is DH Kendrys Morales. In his first season with the Royals, Morales hit 22 home runs with 106 RBIs. He has four home runs in Kansas City's 11 postseason games, including one that helped them win Game 5 of the first round against the Astros.

* The Royals have played in three World Series. Like the Mets' title team in 1986, the Royals won in 1985 with help from a famous play, a blown call by first base umpire Don Denkinger in the ninth inning of Game 6. In K.C., Denkinger called the Royals' Jorge Orta safe at first, even though replays showed he was out. That led to the Royals rallying for two runs - on Dane Iorg's two-run single - to for a series-tying 2-1 win against St. Louis. In Game 7, the Royals' Bret Saberhagen pitched a complete-game 11-0 win. ... The Royals won their first World Series game, 4-3, in Game 3 at home in 1980 versus the Phillies, but ended up losing the series in six games. The series featured Hall of Famers George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Pete Rose, and current Nats executive Bob Boone, then a Phillies catcher who hit .412 in the series. ... The Royals lost to San Francisco in the 2014 World Series as Salvador Perez popped out against Madison Bumgarner for the final out with the potential tying run, Alex Gordon, standing on third base. The Giants won Game 7 3-2.

* Gordon on third base will be the debate that never ends. He was there after hitting a ball that got through the Giants' left fielder Gregor Blanco with two outs in the ninth. Should Gordon have gone home, considering the relay guy was Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford and the catcher was hard-nosed Buster Posey. "It will be the question I have to answer the rest of my life,'' Gordon says.

* The Royals struck out 973 times this season, the only AL team with less than 1,000 team strikeouts. According to Grantland, the Royals made contact on balls in pay 74 percent of the time - highest in the majors - and struck out 15.9 percent, which is the lowest in the majors. Grantland points out that since 2009, teams that have the better contact rate have posted a 32-14 record in the postseason.

* The Royals bullpen is the most impressive part of the team. The Royals make no bones about their strategy: Hope the starters get through five or six innings, and then turn it over to Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis, the closer in place of the injured Greg Holland.

* Part of the reason the Royals are going to another World Series is a trade made with Milwaukee in 2009. After a 67-win season, they traded pitcher Zack Greinke, an AL Cy Young winner, to the Brewers for four players, including Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and pitcher Jake Odorizzi. Cain, a center fielder, and Escobar, a shortstop, have won the American League Championship Series MVP in each of the last two seasons. Odorizzi was traded to Tampa Bay in a deal that brought the Royals starter James Shields and closer Wade Davis. By the way, the Royals and Nationals were close to a deal that would have brought Greinke to Washington, but Greinke wouldn't wave his no-trade clause.

* The Royals have done well in the draft too, making the most of a string of losing seasons. In 2005, they drafted left fielder Gordon. In 2006, they picked up pitcher Luke Hochevar, followed by third baseman Mike Moustakas in 2007 and first baseman Eric Hosmer in 2008. Each struggled to be productive on their way to the top. Gordon was originally a third baseman who had to go to the minors to learn the outfield. Hochevar was a can't-miss starter who ended up in the bullpen. Moustakas struggled against lefties and Hosmer had vision issues.

* Like the Mets, the Royals fortified their roster via trades during July. The Royals picked up Ben Zobrist to play second base in place of Omar Infante and added starter Johnny Cueto from Cincinnati to the rotation. Cueto has been inconsistent, but Zobrist has been as good as advertised, helping the Royals average 5.1 runs a game in their final 43, including the postseason.

* The Royals played in Municipal Stadium from 1969-1972 and moved into Kauffman Stadium in 1973, the only ballpark in the AL that's named after one person, Ewing Kauffman, the former team owner. ... The ballpark is pitcher-friendly going 330 feet down both lines, 387 to the power alleys and 410 to center field. ... The ballpark's distinguishing feature is the 322-foot-long water fountains beyond the right-center field fence. The fountains are constantly flowing, but there are spectacular colorful water shows between innings. Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains. ... The field used to be turf, but was switched to grass in 1995.

* The Royals, an expansion team in 1969, have a golden crown on top of their scoreboard at Kauffman Stadium, but the team's nickname has nothing to do with royalty. Given that Kansas City is at the hub of U.S. livestock production, the Royals were named for the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show, a K.C. tradition for decades. However, other sports teams in K.C. have had royalty touches in their nicknames: The Kansas City Kings played in the NBA and the Kansas City Monarchs were in the Negro National League.

* Royals manager Ned Yost wears uniform No. 3 in honor of a friend, Dale Earnhardt, who made No. 3 a legend in NASCAR racing circles. After the strike-shortened 1994 season, Yost worked on Earnhardt's pit crew.

* The Royals have three retired numbers: George Brett (5), Frank White (20) and Dick Howser (10). Brett had 3,156 hits and is the only player to win batting titles in three decades, 1976, 1980 and 1990. ... White, a second baseman, had 2,007 hits and was a five-time All-Star. ... Howser was the Royals' manager when they beat St. Louis to win the 1985 World Series. The team won three division titles under Howser.

Prediction: Royals will win in seven in a series that pits their contact-hitting lineup against the Mets' power pitching.