Royals think extra rest should benefit Davis

SEATTLE — Royals closer Wade Davis is doing his usual Wade Davis things this year. He has pitched scoreless baseball on one hit through 7 2/3 innings, and while he has uncharacteristically issued five walks, he has struck out eight batters and has seven saves.

The problem is lately he hasn’t been able to get in games. Davis entered Friday night’s series opener against the Mariners at Safeco Field having sat in the bullpen since April 22, a span of six days. This, according to manager Ned Yost, is not a good thing for one simple reason.

“You don’t have any save situations,” Yost said. “It’s the one thing that I’ve always found out [with] closers … it’s either a flood or a drought. You need them in five out of seven days or you don’t need them for seven days.

“It’s not easy to do on the road, especially when you’re playing close games. At home we would, definitely.”

In those six Davis-less days since their closer got the save on April 22 in a 4-2 home win over the Orioles, the Royals played five games and lost four. The lone victory in that stretch, on April 24 against Baltimore at Kauffman Stadium, was setting up to be a save situation until the seventh inning, when the Royals erupted for four runs and made a 2-1 lead into a 6-1 final score.

Yost said it’s tough to figure out when to use Davis because even a token inning …

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