SEATTLE _ On Monday afternoon, the day before his first start in more than five weeks, Danny Duffy rummaged near his locker, pulled a pair of blue Moose antlers on his head, and headed out to the dugout at Safeco Field. For 24 hours, he had become a one-man public relations machine, touting the All-Star candidacy of Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas, his close friend and teammate.
Now it was time for more.
Moustakas is one of five players competing in the Final Vote to be the last member of the American League All-Star team, so Duffy took to Twitter, firing off a barrage of tweets; he voted the maximum number of times on his phone, and then he found an old Moose antler giveaway and headed out for a pregame interview with Fox Sports Kansas City.
"I've been voting 35 times a day," Duffy said.
One day later, Moustakas returned the favor, drilling his 24th homer of the season in a 7-3 victory over the Mariners on Tuesday. In his first start since May 28, Duffy surrendered just two runs in 5 2/3 innings.
The Royals (43-40) won for the fifth time in six games, solving Seattle's Felix Hernandez and claiming their seventh series win in eight tries. In all, Kansas City is 33-20 in its last 53 games, a 100-win pace following an abysmal 10-20 start.
On Tuesday, the latest victory came packaged with positive developments. Duffy was back on the mound for the first time since sustaining a strained oblique muscle on May 28 in Cleveland. He yielded two runs in the first inning before settling in and lasting 86 pitches.
Moustakas maintained his record home-run pace, hammering a two-run shot on a hanging breaking ball from Hernandez in the top of the fourth. The blast turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. The Royals never trailed again.
Second baseman Whit Merrifield opened the game with his seventh homer, clubbing a solo shot to left on the first pitch of the afternoon. Salvador Perez stretched the lead to 6-2 in the fifth with a two-run double. Eric Hosmer extended his hitting streak to a season-high 11 games, finishing 2 for 3 with a walk.
The day, however, belonged to Duffy. In the early afternoon, he appeared in a doorway of the visitors clubhouse. He donned basketball shorts and a Kobe Bryant high school throwback jersey, his usual pregame attire before starts. He headed to the bathroom and proceeded to shave his head.
For 37 days, the Royals had missed this sight _ the Kobe jersey, the bald dome, the anxious energy oozing from Duffy as he sauntered about. Yet for 37 days, the Royals had thrived, their offense finding itself, their pitching staff offering quality performances, the club producing a 21-12 record with Duffy on the bench.
On Tuesday evening, the Royals' most gifted starter was back, notching his first victory since May 23 in New York. He was supported by the club's most torrid power bat. Moustakas homered for the fifth time in seven days, bolstering his resume heading into the Home Run Derby next week.
On Wednesday, the Royals will go for a sweep with All-Star Jason Vargas on the mound.
