Freddie's big day

Freddie Patek had a lot of great games with the Kansas City Royals, but the best game of his life came as a member of the California Angels, and it happened thirty-one years ago today. On June 20, 1980 Patek hit 3 home runs and drove in 7 in leading the Angels to a 20-2 spanking of the Red Sox. He also had 4 hits and scored 4 runs. That game came smack dab in the middle of 20 game stretch that saw Patek hit .355/.375/.566 with 19 RBI's. It looked like a career renaissance for the little guy but he hit just .185 the rest of the season and was essentially done as a player. His 92 OPS+ in 1980 was the second best mark of his career and probably can be owed entirely to his career day on June 20th.

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Alcides Escobar continues to impress at the plate. I seem to be writing a lot about him lately, which is plenty fine with me. In his last 12 games, he has at least 2 hits in 9 of them, and is batting .512/.543/.744 in that period with 7 extra base hits and 6 stolen bases. He really is doing a little bit of everything. 

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The surging Twins have taken over 4th place, which means the Royals now occupy the basement in the AL Central. 

Rk	Tm	W	L	W-L%	GB	R	RA
1	CLE	39	31	.557	---	4.4	4.2
2	DET	39	33	.542	1.0	4.6	4.3
3	CHW	35	38	.479	5.5	4.2	4.2
4	MIN	31	39	.443	8.0	3.8	4.6
5	KCR	31	41	.431	9.0	4.5	5.0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

I think it's okay to assume they are going to be sellers at the trade deadline.