Tiger Bite

Series Analysis

Detroit @ Kansas City

Friday May 4 KC 3-6 DET

Saturday May 5 KC 5-7 DET

Sunday May 6 KC 4-13 DET

It was bound to happen sometime, but the Royals finally got swept and it came at the hand of the AL champion Detroit Tigers. The Royals were obviously outmatched in every facet of the 3 game series. The boys in blue had been flirting with being swept all season, but always managed to find a way to win at least one game...not this time though.

Before I get into the game analysis, I'd like to give a bit of an update on Billy Butler. After watching him play for almost a week, it has become completely obvious of two things.

1. He is a hitter and it's only a matter of time before he really begins to produce

2. He is NOT a fielder. The boy was has offensive prowess, but not a clue about defense

His season batting line so far: 7/23 .304BA 2RBI 1 Double. I tried to watch him as much as possible in left since he was summoned and an outfielder he is not. First of all he is slower then molasses, seriously, he is without a doubt the slowest player on the roster. Another reason Butler doesn't belong in the field is his routes to the ball. He can't read where the balls are going, so he takes a meandering route and the ball drops in for a hit. The combination of poor speed and poor routes equal one thing...DH. I know he's only 21, but he belongs in the batters box, not the field.

On to the game analysis:

The Tigers jumped out to an early lead in this game, a two-run double from Carlos Guillen got them on the board in the 1st inning. Don't forget, before those runs crossed the plate and in that same 1st innning an error by third-baseman Alex Gordon(6) extended the inning. You can't give a team like the Tigers an extra out and they made the Royals pay. Brian Bannister(4 2/3 4R 2ER 2K 2BB) doesn't impress me to much. He throws to many pitches, 100 in 4 2/3, and leaves to many balls up in the zone, he also gave up 3 doubles Friday night. Todd Wellemeyer was the next pitcher of record and after he had a strong outing on Monday against the Angels, regressed mightily(No Outs Recorded 2ER 2BB) The Royals did score three runs, but it wasn't enough against Justin Verlander and the Tigers.

The Saturday night game was the heartbreaker of the series. The Royals ended up losing 5-7 due to some bad luck and a wanna-be hotshot asshole. The Royals offense showed some wind-aided power, cranking out 3 homeruns(Sweeney, German and LaRue). Odalis Perez pitched, not good not bad, he just pitched(6IP 4ER 0K 2BB), but left after 6 innings with the lead 5-4. To leadoff the 7th innings Emil Brown hit a shot to deep center. Instead of running right off the bat, trust me it wasn't that majestic of a shot, he stood at home and watched the ball for a bit and then broke into his homerun trot...the problem was the ball didn't leave the yard, it hit the top of the fence and Emil was thrown out trying to stretch a sure-fire double into a double. Editors Commentary: Emil's shenanigans really hurt the team. Only, only if the ball is hit about 420 feet can you watch the ball. My other problem was he compounded his mistake. Instead of accepting he screwed up and take a single, he tried for a double and got thrown out. Bad Emil...asshole Emil. Regardless, the Royals still had the lead. Now for the bad luck part. During the 8th inning with a man on 1st, Brandon Duckworth, slipped making a pitch home and the ball ended up about 5 feet over the LaRue's head resulting in a 2-base wild pitch. After that the game was all the Tigers. Joakim Soria came in recorded his first blown save. Tigers win 5-7. Another game note...Mark Teahen really played well in right this game. He threw out 2 runners at home and one at third. He is really starting to take to right field.

The final, sweep resulting game can be summed up in one inning. Zack Greinke(4IP 6ER 1K 0BB) came out and as Buddy Bell said after the game was "wild in the strike zone." Which really means...all of his pitches were right down the heart of the plate.The 2nd inning was where the game got out of control. Zack surrendered 3 consecutive 2-run homeruns and the Tigers never looked back. Game over. Todd Wellemeyer did come in in relief and sucked again(2 IP 3ER). After Wellemeyer, Neil Musser came in and sucked as well(1 IP 4ER.)

Other Notes

- Mike Sweeney hit his 3rd homerun of year

- Eseban German hit his 2nd homerun of the year

- Jason LaRue hit his 1st homerun and is now batting .163

- Ross Gload's batting average is sitting at .305 and leads the team with 16 RBI

- Todd Wellemeyer's ERA- 9.69

Monday is an off day and then the former Kansas City Athletics come to town for 3 games

Royals Fact: Last season the Royals record through the first 32 games was 10-22.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 10-22