Volquez focused on present, not past starts

KANSAS CITY — On Monday, right-hander Edinson Volquez sat in the Royals’ clubhouse, listening to music coming out of his locker. His eyes were down, focused on a baseball-reference spreadsheet on his phone, as he prepared for his start against the Yankees on Tuesday.

In his last start against the Marlins, Volquez shrugged off a spell of rough outings. He pitched five strong innings, giving up two runs (zero earned). The outing snapped a stretch of five straight in which Volquez had allowed four or more runs, and was the first time he hadn’t yielding an earned run in a start since June.

“I know he’s been working a lot in between starts,” right-hander Ian Kennedy said, “doing a couple extra bullpens here and there when he has those extras days, working on that fastball command, which it all stems off of.”

Preparation is seldom an issue for a Royals pitching staff that had combined to hold opponents to a 2.54 ERA during the month of August entering Monday, which was tied with the Cubs for the best mark in the Majors. However, Volquez acknowledged some of the mental side that seeps into his routine between starts.

One thing Volquez said he tries to do is to think about where he wants to …

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