Wins, Moves & A New Whipping Boy...

Series Analysis

Anaheim @ Kansas City

Monday April 30 KC 1-5 ANA

Tuesday May 1 KC 5-7 ANA

Wednesday May 2 KC 3-1 ANA

Thursday May 3 KC 5-2 ANA

After dropping the first two games of the four game series, the Royals came back with a vengeance and took the final two games of the series breaking even with the Angels of Anaheim. After the first two games and seeing the same ol' Royals...leaving men on base and ice cold bats...to take the final two games of the series was quite the feat. The Royals beat two good pitchers and the Royals pitchers weren't pushovers either.

Monday nights game was a pretty poor offensive performance. Odalis Perez(6 IP 3ER 4K 1BB) pitched a solid game, he did surrender 10 hits, but he kept the Royals in the game. Following the 6th inning manager Buddy Bell summoned righthander Todd Wellemeyer from the pen...Wellemeyer had his best performance of the year to date(3 IP 0ER 1K oBB!). To bad the Royals offense wasted two good pitching outings only scratching out 1 run against John Lackey. They did manage to get 9 hits, but they left 7 men on base and struck out 11! times. Also during the game Ryan Shealy pulled his hamstring and was put on the DL the following day.

-Editor's Commentary- This is just the reason the Royals were looking for to send Shealy to the minors to get his head together. To send him down normally, he would've had to clear waivers and that wouldn't have happened...so the 15-day DL and a long 30 day rehab assignment in the minors...Tah-Dah!

On to Tuesdays game. The biggest news of the day was not that the Royals dropped their 3rd game in a row, but that super prospect Billy Butler hath arrived. With Shealy on the DL, the fan base rapidly losing interest and a terrible offense, the Royals decided to bring up Butler to satisfy all three of the above problems. He did go 2/4 in his MLB debut.

What happened to the Zack Greinke from the first two starts of the year? This Zack isn't bad, but hes definitely not good. Greinke(5 IP 6ER 3K 2BB) really struggled in the first inning. His sequence went something like this:

-bloop single to left

-bloop single to right

-solid single to center

-Vladimir Guerrero yard...Grand Slam.

It is only the second homerun that Greinke has surrendered all year. Granted the other homerun he gave up was also in the 1st inning and also a grand slam...so...not good. One good thing about Tuesday's game was the awaking of the Royals offense. The Royals scored 5 runs, capped off by a 3rd inning 3-run homerun from Mark Teahen. Alas though, it was not enough as the Royals fall 5-7.

The third game of the set ended in a Royals victory, 3-1. This game is one of the better games that the Royals have played all year. They got a good solid start from Jorge De La Rosa(7 IP 1ER 2K 1BB). De La Rosa has really taken a step forward this year and lets hope he keeps putting up solid starts. The best part of the evening came off the bat of Esteban German. For 6 innings the Royals couldn't push a run across against Ervin Santana. The Royals left runners at third base in 3 innings, but could never score. In the 7th inning though that all changed. Esteban German hit a 3-run homerun and the Royals never looked back. Brandon Duckworth and Joakim Soria combined for 2 shutout innings and the Royals stopped the losing streak at 3. During this game the Royals lost another player to the DL...Reggie Sanders was placed on the DL after the game, diagnosed with a torn hamstring. Shane Costa was called up from Omaha to fill Sander's spot on the roster.

The final game of the series on Thurday afternoon and chalk up another win for the Royals. Gil Meche was excellent again in his 7th start this year. Meche(7IP 2ER 6K 1BB) allowed a 1st inning, 2-run homerun to Vlad and a 7th inning single to Vlad. Meche only allowed 2 hits over 7 innings...Ace? It really is looking like it. Even though the Royals were down 2 runs in the 1st inning they never gave up and ended up scoring 5 runs and earning the victory. Duckworth and Soria again combined for 2 scoreless innings to help seal the victory.

Other Notes

- Ross Gload had a hellava series: 7/15 .467BA 2RBI 3 doubles 1 triple

- Mark Teahen also played well: 6/16 .375BA 1HR 3RBI 1 double

- Alex Gordon continues to stuggle, his season batting average: .169

- Billy Butler is off to a decent start: 4/12 1RBI

- Jason LaRue is off to a miserable start: .098BA

- Tony Pena Jr. did not have an error during the whole series

A New Whipping Boy!

I like Jason LaRue. He's a nice guy, but is just having a terrible season. All he's doing currently is taking away at bats for John Buck. Dayton Moore brought in another catcher to provide some competition and John Buck responded very well. In the beginning of the season Buddy said the Royals were going to platoon in the catchers spot because neither one stood out above the other. After the first month John Buck has stood out, but Buddy just keeps playing LaRue. Until LaRue removes head from ass before playing, he should be relegated to backup duty and let Buck play everyday.

Next up Detroit comes back to town for 3

Royals Fact: Gil Meche's era currently stands at 2.23. The lowest ERA for a Royals starter for a whole season is 2.08 by Roger Nelson in 1972.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 10-19