Jun/090
Royals Blank Tigers 9-0, Pavano Sucks Again
Posted by: Casey on June 10, 2009.
Callaspo Crushes Grand Slam In 5th (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Hey, now that’s the Carl Pavano I’ve come to love. He doesn’t make it out of the 5th, while giving up 11 hits and 9 runs, all of which came off of home runs. Guillen hit a two run blast, Olivo hit another two run blast, and Callaspo scorched a grand slam, perhaps a fitting grand slam a day after the Indians sunk the Royals with their grand slam from Mark DeRosa.
Not a bad offensive night for the Royals, the most runs they’ve scored in a single game in over a month, plus we got our second win of the road trip. This sets up nicely because Greinke hits the mound tomorrow for the boys in blue, and we have a legitimate chance at winning our first series in the previous 10. Gil Meche was terrific, in a game where we really needed him. He pitched 7 innings, while fanning 11. It was nice to see him pitch so well again.
Jun/090
Royals Give Win Away
Posted by: Casey on June 9, 2009.
Callaspo isn't cut out for hockey (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Merry Christmas.
Heading into the bottom of the 6th, I had a sick feeling in my stomach. From one point of view, the Royals were looking pretty good at getting this series off the right way, up 4-0 with Bannie controlling things. That’s when we completely de-railed. A double play ball that we got 0 outs on, then a play that we should have got the lead runner and not allowed anyone to score, but Olivo pulled his foot off home plate.
After giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th, we gave up a grand slam in the 7th and well, that was the game.
Who does the blame fall upon in this game? Bannister gives up 1 ER, and our bullpen/defense pretty much accounts for the rest of the 7. All season long I have said that this team is not where it should be defensively, and that we won’t make any kind of noise if we don’t have a solid bullpen or solid defense to go along with the good pitching. Who in this bullpen do you trust when you have a slim lead? Soria. Other then that, who do you trust? I would say Mahay (of last year) as well.
This bullpen is so awful that I can’t believe we ever thought it was going to be a strength.
The good news is that we scored 4 runs off of Cliff Lee, the other good news is that we have Meche and Greinke for the final two games of the series. This series is not lost, even though we gave away a game today. This was a ridiculous game, and a game that the Royals, in no way, should have lost. We’ve got to swallow this tough pill, and head out there tomorrow with Meche and then Greinke the following day. We desperately need a series victory…
Jun/092
Royals Begin Pivotal Stretch
Posted by: Casey on June 8, 2009.
The upcoming schedule looks promising for the Royals if they are wanting to make a run and get back into things. We are only 6.5 games behind the Tigers, and this division still looks wide open. We’ve played awful baseball for the last month, but still have a chance at making a run.
The upcoming schedule looks like this, 3 @ Cleveland, who has been better recently, but is without Grady Sizemore. We face Cliff Lee (with Bannister facing him), then we have Meche and Greinke. We have a good chance to take two out of three, in fact I predict it. Then we head home for 3 series against NL teams, Cincinati, Arizona and St. Louis. Those 3 teams are all fairly decent, but the AL is tougher than the NL, so we should make up some ground over that stretch, hopefully playing some solid baseball like we did earlier this year. After that stretch, we go on the road for two more interleague series against Houston and Pittsburg.
We need to make a move here over these next 6 series. We haven’t won a series in what has seemed like forever, and it would be great to make up some ground in the division. Hopefully we can get hot and all the other teams can stay cool.
The draft is tomorrow, I’ll do a full bio of whoever we pick at No. 11 tomorrow night, along with a recap of other top picks.
Royals play Cleveland at 6:05 central time. Bannister vs Cliff Lee.
May/091
Royals Bullpen Loses Second Consecutive
Posted by: Casey on May 21, 2009.
The Royals Bullpen has gone from a strength to a liability at this point in the year, and you’ve got to wonder how much better Soria makes them look. Meanwhile, the offense sucked again. Starting pitching isn’t going to get us to the playoffs, because you have to either have a bullpen or an offense to go with it. I’m frustrated with some of the decisions that were made today by Hillman, I guess that’s what I get for sticking up for him yesterday! The #1 thing that bothered me was pitching to Cabrera with first base open and the struggling Sizemore behind him. Cabrera absolutely killed us this series, meanwhile Sizemore is 1 for his last 21?
Not only has the bullpen become a liability, but the defense really isn’t as good as it should be. Callaspo sucks, Guillen sucks, Bloomquist sucks at SS, Coco has no arm, Olivo/Buck get ran on pretty consistently and Avilles has turned into a headcase.
For the first time all year, Zach Greinke was behind in the count on most batters he faced. He’s been so good this year at getting ahead then putting them away on his pitch. Even though he only pitched 6 innings, he threw 103 pitches. My prediction of 3 runs for the win would have been true, if only our ‘pen didn’t collapse. He shouldn’t have to do a complete game every start.
May/090
DeJesus & Teahen Strand Bases-Loaded Against Wood
Posted by: Casey on May 21, 2009.
Well, they had a chance to win back to back games against Kerry Wood in the bottom of the 9th. Wood walked the bases loaded, then struck out Teahen and DeJesus to win by 1. Meche had a good start, I’m glad to see his back didn’t hurt yesterday. I’m sure it’ll pop up the next time he gives up more than a run or two. Grienke goes today, if the Royals score 3, I think it’s in the bag.
May/092
Wood Blows Save, Royals Hug
Posted by: Casey on May 20, 2009.
The obligatory celebration after a 9th inning comeback..
The boys in blue were stymied by lefty Cliff Lee, but luckily for us, Kerry Wood lived up to his scouting report, really good sometimes, and completely awful the rest of the time. After a 5-2 lead was handed to Wood in the bottom of the 9th at the “New K”, Jose Guillen grounded out, Mike Jacobs hit a 3-2 fastball (which was low-middle, the only place Jacobs hits homeruns) over the right-center fence. 5-3, 1 out, no big deal. Next up, Teahen. First pitch fastball, solo home run to left. Well okay, now the crowd is in it. 5-4, 1 out, Olivo walks in 5 pitches. Mr. Clutch himself, DeJesus strides up and hits a game-tying triple. I personally thought he had a pretty good chance at an inside-the-park home run after the ball got stuck under the wall. Then Bloomquist hits a 3-1 game-winning sac fly to Shin Soo Choo, and DeJesus scored fairly easily.
It was a good win for the Royals, especially since we were playing reigning Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, who’s already beaten us once this year. Kyle Farnsworth collected his first victory of the season, although he gave up three solid hits in the top of the 9th, they were just hit right at fielders.
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