This afternoon the Royals came to agreement with former Diamondback reliever Juan Cruz. The deal is worth a reported $2.25 mill this season, $3.25 mill for 2010, and a club option $4 mill for 2011, with a $500K buyout.

Last season Cruz led all National League relievers with a 12.37 strikeout rate per 9 innings. He also had a 2.61 ERA last season for the D Backs and owns career strikeout to walk rate of 535:266. Cruz was a type A free agent so the Diamondbacks will get the Royals second round pick as compensation (The top half of the first round are protected and the Royals pick 12th.)

To make room for Cruz on the 40 man roster the Royals designated Esteban German for assignment.

Cruz will add even more depth to a Royals bullpen that is really starting to take shape. With the likes of Cruz Farnsworth and Mahay at the back getting the ball to Soria, on paper it is starting to look like the bullpen maybe a strength of the 09 Royals.

The Kansas City Royals avoided a three game sweep the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon as they won in extra innings by the score of 3-2. David DeJesus provided the winning rbi on a single to right field that scored Mark Teahen. It was a nice way to close out a rather dissappointing series for the Royals.

Esteban German got the Royals on the scoreboard in the second inning with a rbi double that plated Miguel Olivo. German’s rbi double tied the game up at 1-1. With the twins up 2-1, Jose Guillen doubled to deep left center to score the Royals run. The game would stay tied until the 10th inning when DeJesus eventually won it.

Ramon Ramirez who pitched the ninth inning ended up with the victory and is now 3-2 on the season. Joakim Soria nothced his 36th save of the season as he finished the Twins off in the bottom of the tenth.

Brandon Duckworth was the starting pitcher for the Royals and he gave up seven hits and two runs in just finve innings of action. Wasn’t that good of a start for Duckworth as he had to work out of multiple jams in his five innings.

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For the third straight night, the Kansas City Royals were beaten by the Texas Rangers. The Royals lost all three game of the three game series and dropped to 56-77 on the season. Two of the three games were by one run, and Wedneday night was one of them as the Royals lost 3-2.

Brian Bannister took the loss and is now 7-14. Bannister gave up six hits and three runs in 6 2/3 innings. Bannister struckout eight Rangers but also gave up one big two run home run in the fourth inning. Bannister had a costly mistake in the seventh inning on a throw to the first base that allowed the game winning run to score as well.

Esteban German finished the game 2-4 with one rbi. German’s rbi came in the third inning when he doubled and Mark Teahen. German scored the Royals second and final run in the fifth inning when David DeJesus singled. That was all the offense for the Royals as they continue to struggle at the plate.

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The Kansas City Royals completed a three game sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a 4-3 victory in 11 innings on Wednesday afternoon.  The Royals have now won four straight games!  Most Royals fans have to be sky high right now with the four wins in a row lol!

Jose Guillen hit a rbi sac fly to score Esteban German for the winning run in the eleventh inning.  I wonder if Guillen even said a word afterwards with the way he has been demanding a trade.  Guillen also had a rbi single the sixth inning as he finished the game with two rbi.  Mike Aviles and Mitch Maier both contributed with an rbi each as well.

Brian Bannister gave up eight hits and two runs over five innings to get the no decision on the mound.  Horacio Ramirez was charged with one run as he pitched when Bannister was taken out of the game.  Ramon Ramirez ended up getting the win while Joakim Soria nothced his 30th save of the season.

Good job by the Royals!  I need to let all the readers know that I will be out of town until August 12th as I will be at a conference out of town for the next couple of weeks.  If there is a Royals fan out there that would like to do some blogging and game recaps, please email me by clicking the contact us link at the top of the blog and I will send you some details.

Thanks – Cliff

The Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox played 13 innings on Tuesday night and it was the White Sox that came away with the 8-7 victory.  After the Royals tied things up in the 11th inning with two runs, they gave up a run in the 13th inning and were unable to tie the game once again and fell to the White Sox.

Orlando Cabrera hit a rbi double in the 13th inning off of Robinson Tejeda who took the loss for the Royals.  Tejada is now 0-1 on the season.  Horacio Ramirez gave up two runs in the 11th inning for the Royals as well.  Starting pitcher Kyle Davies pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up nine hits and three runs.  Joe Crede did take Davies deep for a solo home run in the game for the only long ball of the night.  Ramon Ramirez gave up two more runs as he pitched 1 2/3 innings after Davies left the game.  The pitching staff just didn’t have it on Tuesday night.

The Royals were led by David DeJesus and Mike Aviles at the plate as both players had two rbi each in the game.  Alex Gordon, Miguel Olivo, and Esteban German all had one rbi each.  Aviles and Gordon were the two players with a rbi in the 11th inning that extended the game even further.

The Royals will now try to tie the series up at 1-1 with a victory on Wednesday.  Royals Blog

It looked like an unlikely win going into tonight for Kansas City and starter Kyle Davies going against Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia and the Clevland Indians. Davies making his first start of the season for Kansas City after being called up from Omaha. After struggling last year with the Royals, Davies has been dominant this year in the minors with a 6-2 record and an ERA of 2.05.

The game started out the way most of the season has gone for the Royals with good pitching but little run support. In the 3rd inning Clevland’s Franklin Gutierrez hit a ball to left field that Jose Guillen bobbled and then triped before throwing the ball in, allowing Gutierrez to go to 3rd on the play. Gutierrez then scored off of a blooper over shortstop Esteban German’s head as the infield was playing in.

In the bottom of the 3rd David Dejesus hit a mistake by Sabathia for a solo home run to right. Dejesus also provided an RBI double in the 5th and later came around to score.

With a 4-1 lead going into the 8th inning Trey Hillman brought in closer Joakim Soria to pitch the last 6 outs of the game. This move showed how desperate the Royals were to get out of the 12 game losing skid. After loading the bases it looked like the Royals could be in for another blown lead, but Soria was able to escape the big inning allowing only one run. Joakim Soria ended with the save in a final of 4-2.

The Royals are finally done with the losing streak and ready to start winning games again. Tommorrow they will face former Royal Paul Byrd. Pitching for the Royals will be Brian Bannister in what looks like a pretty good pitching matchup. Hopefully the Royals can get winning streak started and go into the much needed off day on a good note.

The Royals have found another exciting way to lose a game in a 5-4 defeat against Cliff Lee and the Clevland Indians. While this one was not quiote as devastating as the 5 run blown lead on wednsday, it was a difficult way to end a game. What looked like atleast a game tying double for Jose Guillen with 2 out in the ninth inning, Grady Sizemore made a great catch while slamming into the outfield fence.

Sizemore found other ways to hurt the Royals hitting 2 home runs off of starter Gil Meche. After the first blast by Sizemore, Meche began to get things under control. That is until the power hitting centerfielder came up again in the 5th inning and crushed a two run home run over the right field fence into the fountains. Brett Tomko would come in for the 6th and give up another 2 run homer.

Meanwhile the Royal bats were able to put up 4 runs against the Indians Cliff Lee, who entered friday posting the leagues lowest ERA. With 13 hits in the game it would have been nice to see the Royals put more runs on the board, but they continue to show lack of power with none of these hits being home runs. Base running blunnders also hurt the Royals, as Joey Gathright scored the game tying run off of a hit by Esteban German. The problem being before Gathright scored David Dejesus had been tagged out for the third out after over running 2nd base.

The friday night lose continues the now 12 game losing streak for the Royals. While the team gives up another lead(this time only a 3 run lead.) the streak has become extremely hard to watch for Royals fans, bringing back memories of the 2005 19-game losing streak. From 2005 to the present there have been 7 losing streaks that have reached 11 games in the major leagues, the Royals hold 4 of those.

Mark Teahen hit a ball to shortstop to Edgar Renteria who had an error on the plate that allowed Esteban German to score the game winning run in the eighth inning.  That is how the Royals came back and beat the Tigets on Tuesday night by the score of 3-2.

The Royals got down 2-0 early in the game as Zack Greinke gave up two early runs but then settled down as he pitched six innings.  Greinke ended up taking home the no decision in the game.  Leo Nunez improved to 3-0 on the season as he picked up the win in relief.  Joakim Soria pitched the ninth inning as he picked up his ninth save of the season.

Jose Guillen had the first two rbi in the game for the Royals when he doubled in the third inning to get the Royals on the board.  Those were the only two runs the Royals got until the eighth inning when they scored on the error by Renteria.

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