Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Lost Art of Retaliation

Hit Someone...Please!

Sweeping the Angels is a great way to end a road trip, whether a winning or a losing road trip, it's just solid to come home aftersweeping the best team in baseball.

The Royals played solid baseball, winning in every way possible...a normal win, a blowout and a 1-run pitching duel. Good solid baseball and a good solid sweep.

I saw 3 different things that really stood out in my mind after this series:

1. The bullpen deserves an atta'boy! 8 IP 1.12ERA 1ER 7K 1BB

2. The homerun hitting duo of Gordon and Butler going deep in the same game is awesome. First time ever on 6/26/07

3. Royals pitchers need to freaking bean some people!

Lets elaborate on the last topic:

Over the 3 game series in Anaheim Royals batters got beaned 5 times...2 times in the Monday game and 3 times in the blowout on Tuesday. Take a guess at how many times an Angel got beaned? If you guessed none, you would be right. After 5 Royals players took pitches on the chin, Royals pitchers felt no need to protect their hitters or even things up a bit.

To tell the truth it kinda pisses me off. Stand up for your batters. It's not a difficult theory, just send a message to the other team and let them know, if you plunk a Royal, expect to get plunked.

I looked up the numbers for this season...So far Royals batters have been plunked 49 times this season, which incidentally leads the majors. Royals pitchers have hit opposing batters only 21 times, which is good for 26th in the majors.

I'm not sure if it is a coaching philosophy or what, but someone needs to step up and protect our batters. I'm not advocating for retaliation in a 1-0 game, but during Tuesdays blowout after 3 Royals players have already been hit, why not just give an Angel a shot to the ribs as a bit of payback.

Bruise for a bruise.

-b

Royals 2007 Record: 33-46

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