The Royals win tonight by the score of 2-1.  Kyle Davies pitched a very good game going 6 2/3 innings. He did’nt allow the first run until the 7th inning. Joakim Soria came in and got the win, striking out two in the 9th.

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 Royals came into tonight’s game with a chance to gain some ground on the first place Chicago White Sox. The chance was blown as Kansas City pitching gave up 9 runs.

Zack Greinke had a 2.88 ERA on the season before the game but was unfortunatly hit hard tonight by what has been a struggling White Sox line up. Zack’s ERA was ballooned to 3.56 after the game. What really hurt Greinke was the long ball. He gave up three home runs tonight. Carlos Quentin was the first to go deep for his 15th of the season. Pierzynski and Ramirez also hit home runs tonight for the Sox.

It was a dissapointing game not just because of Greinke’s problems, but Tony Pena Jr. was back in a starting role at shortstop. TPJ did surprise though by actually getting on base which he does not do very often as you can tell by his .178 OBP. (It’s not to often that you see a player hitting under the mendoza line with his OBP.) Tony singled early in the game. He also kicked a double play ground ball into the outfield and literally threw his bat at a pitch 3 feet outside.

Shortstop Mike Aviles has played one game with three at-bats since being called up from AAA. Trey Hillman said he was not impressed, and Aviles has not gotten into a game since. While Hillman was so unimpressed with these at-bats that he sits for five games we must be patient with Tony Pena Jr. hitting .155 in 155 at-bats. I have not had many problems with the managing this year but what is going on at shortstop is absurd. Why not put Aviles in the line up and get some at-bats instead of turn our line up into a National League order by playing Tony Pena Jr.