KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Royals are another week closer to flooding the All-Star Game with Kansas City representatives.
The same five Royals -- catcher Salvador Perez, shortstop Alcides Escobar, third baseman Mike Moustakas and outfielders Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain -- as last week are still in line to start the Midsummer Classic for the American League in Cincinnati on July 14.
First baseman Eric Hosmer pulled closer to Detroit's Miguel Cabrera among AL first basemen, trailing the former MVP by just over 70,000 votes. Outfielder Alex Rios moved from sixth to fifth place among AL outfielders, despite playing just eight games.
Perez and Cain led all AL vote-getters last week, but Moustakas has jumped up to the No. 3 spot in the AL. Moustakas has 2.385 million votes (which leads Toronto's Josh Donaldson by nearly 1 million votes) and edges out reigning MVP Mike Trout for third-most tallies.
Perez has 2.681 million votes -- the most in the AL -- while Cain is second at 2.506 million.
Second baseman Omar Infante remained in second place behind Houston's Jose Altuve, trailing him by less than 600,000 votes. Designated hitter Kendrys Morales also stayed in second place, now needing nearly 300,000 votes to catch Seattle's Nelson Cruz.
Escobar has a comfortable 1 million-vote lead on Detroit's Jose Iglesias while Gordon -- No. 3 in the AL outfield -- leads Baltimore's Adam Jones by about 400,000 votes for the final outfield starting spot. Rios is behind Jones by approximately 265,000 votes.
No AL team has ever had five starters for the All-Star Game. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds were the only team to accomplish the feat.
Royals manager Ned Yost will manage the game by virtue of Kansas City's 2014 AL championship.
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
