Mike Moustakas: Kansas City Royals 3B Earns AL Worst of the Night Award

Kansas City Royals youngster Mike Moustakas has a strong case to be the starting third baseman for the American League All-Star team this year. It's going largely unnoticed, but he's having a very good year.

Moustakas went into Wednesday night's contest against the New York Yankees batting .287/.342/.510, and he had hit his seventh home run a couple nights earlier.

On Wednesday night, Moustakas found himself matched up against grizzled veteran Andy Pettitte, who is back to rescue the Yankees' starting rotation after a full year of feeding and slumbering. He proceeded to teach the kid a lesson or two.

Actually, it was three lessons, and they came in consecutive at-bats.

Moustakas came up with one out and nobody on in the top of the second, and promptly struck out swinging against Pettitte.

He came up again with a man on first and one out in the top of the fourth, and struck out swinging.

Moustakas found himself at the plate once again with one out and nobody on in the top of the sixth inning, and he struck out swinging for a third time against Pettitte.

At this stage of his career, Pettitte does not have the stuff he used to have. If you want to be nice, you would call him a "crafty lefty." If you want to be honest, you could call him a "junkballer." 

But since his junk was so effective against Moustakas on Wednesday night, I suppose we could temporarily refer to Pettitte as the "slayer of young third basemen" and call it even. 

Yeah. Sure. Why not.

At any rate, Moustakas' troubles on Wednesday night weren't limited to his three forgettable at-bats against the Yankees' vampiric lefty. He also made a key fielding error in the bottom of the fifth that helped produce a run for the Yankees, and he grounded out to the pitcher in his last at-bat in the top of the ninth.

His final line: 4 AB, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1 LOB.

He entered the game hitting .287/.342/.510, and he exited it hitting .279/.333/.497. He's now gone 0-for-4 in consecutive games for the first time all season.

Can't win 'em all, kid.

Moustakas would no doubt just as soon forget the night he just had against Pettitte and the Yankees, but there's no rule that says we can't remember it for him. To help make remembering it a little easier for everyone else, I am bestowing American League "Worst of the Night" honors on Moustakas.

Hey, at least he's in elite company. I gave the award to Prince Fielder yesterday.

Besides, Moustakas should look on the bright side. Despite his lousy game on Wednesday, he's still leading all American League third basemen in WAR, according to FanGraphs. There are some pretty good third basemen in the American League, but nobody has been a dual threat on offense and defense quite like he has.

Since I've basically spent this entire article bashing him, it's only fair that I do him a favor. So here it is: If you head over to MLB.com and bring up the All-Star ballot, Moustakas' name isn't hard to find.

If you ever want to nominate somebody for American League "Worst of the Night" honors, you can hit me up on Twitter.