Against Venezuela Ponson pitched in 5 innings and gave up 2 runs in the 3-1 loss. Ponson also beat the Dominican Republic by going 4 innings and giving up only 2 runs. Last season Ponson had a 4-1 record with a 3.88 ERA in 9 starts with the Texas Rangers, and with the New York Yankees pitched in 16 games with a 4-4 record and a 5.85 ERA.

I expect Ponson to report to camp as soon as possible and compete with Bannister, Hochevar, and Horacio Ramirez for the final two rotation spots behind Meche, Greinke, and Davies.

It was awesome watching Davies and Soria on the mound as they just made the Mariners hitters look silly at the plate. It’s too bad we didn’t see much of this during the season.

Mike Aviles scored the first run for the Royals on a wild pitch by Carlos Silva in the first inning. The second Royals run came in the fourth inning when Mark Teahen singled to score Jose Guillen. The Royals picked up an insurance run in the seventh inning when Tony Pena Jr.scored on a infield single by David DeJesus.

Good win for the Royals! Royals Blog

Royals starting pitcher Kyle Davies was charged with the loss and is now 5-4 Davies didn’t throw that ball all that bad as he was charged with nine hits and three runs. Davies struckout seven white sox batters while walking two in his five innings of action. Joel Peralta was charged with three home runs and five runs while Robinson Tejeda was charged with one home run. I put the blame on Peralta and Tejada in this game because they put the team in a big hole after giving up those four home runs.

Once again it was only Jose Guillen who was knocking in any runs for the Royals at the plate. Guillen had a two run single in the first inning but after that the Royals were held scoreless. The bats for the Royals just can’t seem to get things going and it isn’t going to really make a difference if they do get going as the season is coming to an end in the next six weeks.

So how many Royals fans out there have pretty much stopped watching the games and paying any attention to the team? We will still be here blogging until the season is over so keep checking back!

Royals Baseball Blog

Kyle Davies dropped to 3-2 on the season as he only lasted four innings on the mound.  Davies gave up five hits and two runs including one home run.  Joel Peralta tossed the next three innings of the game and he gave up four hits and three runs as well as walking two batters.  Robinson Tejeda pitched the 8th and 9th innings after the rain delay and he was just as good as Davies and Peralta as he gave up three hits and two runs.  The Royals pitchers just didn’t have it going on Tuesday night.   Hell, we can just about say that for every night.

At the plate the Royals only had six hits and struckout nine times.  Second basemen Mark Grudzielanek went 3-4 with the Royals lone rbi.  Grudzielanek had a rbi single in the first inning and after that the Royals pretty much were silent at the plate.  You have to swing the bats a lot better then that if you want to win.  Especially when your pitchers give up seven runs.

So will the Royals come out on Wednesday and avoid the three game sweep?  I really doubt it.

Royals Blog

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

Aviles bad throw was not the only defensive play that cost the Royals. Joey Gathright lost a ball in centerfield that dropped amd scored a run. Miguel Olivo made a pretty horrendous error by dropping the ball after tagging out a runner at home. No it was’nt a ball jarring collision at home that caused Olivo to drop the ball, he just dropped it. But the Royals lost this one not entirely because of these mistakes but more because they could never really put anything together. They never had a rally the whole game. In the 7th inning it looked like a rally was beggining but on a run scoring hit Olivo was sent home by 3rd base coach Luis Silverio. Olivo was thrown out by a mile by Cardinal catcher Yadier Molina.

Billy Butler was called up from triple-A Omaha today before the game but was not in the line up on saturday night. After struggling at the major league level recently Butler was sent down and hit very well. Alberto Callaspo was placed on the 15 day DL after he was arrested for running a red light late at night and was charged with a DUI. It is unknown whether the arrest has anything to do with the arrest.

The young phenom pitcher Tim Lincecum had the Royals struggling early and go scoreless through the first 2 innings. In the 3rd the Royals were able to get 2 runs on the board. Lincecum went 5 innings with 8 strikeouts and gave up 5 earned runs. Kyle Davies started the game for the Royals and he did not get very far into it. After 1.1 innings and 5 earned runs Davies was taken out. This was dissapointing with the good starts Davies has had recenlty.

In a game that ended 11-10 you would expect atleast a couple home runs, but that was not the case in this game. There was not a single home run out of the 21 run game. In saturdays Cubs-White Sox game that had 18 runs scored there were six home runs. Now I realize that these 2 teams are pretty much the polar opposites of the White Sox and Cubs right now, but still it’s pretty surprising that not a single run came from a homer. There were a lot of players with RBI’s today but Dejesus and Aviles have continued hitting well today, with Dejesus having 2 RBI’s and Aviles despite only getting  1 hit had 3 RBI’s.

The Royals have now won 3 strait series and will face the Colorado Rockies at Kauffman stadium next. The Rockies are 32-44 on the season.

It is great to beat the Yankee’s but it’s tough to win game’s when you only score 2 runs. Some of the offense that the Royals did get came from shortstop Mike Aviles, who had two doubles on the night. Aviles had his first major league hit in New York tonight, where he grew up and had family and friends at the game. It was good to see Aviles in the lineup after he had been called up last week and only played in one game. Maybe after showing some offense he will get some more playing time.

Alex Gordon has really fallen into a slump recently. He went 0 for 4 tonight and has been struggling for awhile now. He is essential in the Royals scoring runs. It hurts that while Teahen has been playing so well on this road trip, Alex Gordon played just as bad. There have been some streaky hitters this year and the Royals can’t seem to get everyone hitting well at the same time.

Also, today during the game the Royals were able to trade the 2003 AL rookie of the year Angel Berroa to the Dodgers. The Dodgers did not give up much, only 21 year old Juan Rivera, who was hitting .241 in single-A. Most likely the Royals were just trying to dump Berroa’s salary to sign the draft picks that they picked up.

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.

Kyle Davies was optioned to Triple-A Omaha.

Jorge De La Rosa was designated for assignement.

Chin-Hui Tsao, Roman Colon, and Ken Huckaby were sent to minor league camp.

Ramon Ramirez was grabbed from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later.