The Royals pulled off a 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers in the eighth inning. Going into the bottom of the eighth the Royals were down 5-4. Alberto Callaspo reached on a single and that brought Alex Gordon up to bat. Alex hit a double that landed right on the right field foul line. Frank Fransisco pitching for the Rangers threw a wild pitch over Jose Guillen’s head in the next at-bat that pinch runner Tony Pena Jr. scored on. Pena went right away and looked like he would be out after the ball bounced strait off the backstop to Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, luckily for the Royals, Saltalamacchia slipped and was not able to make a throw home. Gordon also made it to third on the play. Jose Guillen hit a fly ballto right center field that Gordon tagged up on. The throw home looked like it would be in time but Gordon dove just out of the way of the tag.

Brian Bannister pitched for the Royals against Eric Hurley. Bannister did not have a great game but did well enough to keep the Royals in the game. The first home run for the Rangers was a three run homer by Duran, the next batter was Ian Kinsler who went back-to-back on a solo home run. He went 7 innings and gave up 4 earned runs on 2 home runs. Hurley also gave up 4 earned runs in 6 innings and 2 home runs. Joakim Soria came in for the 9th inning and got 1 strikeout and the save for the Royals.

Other than the runs in the 8th the Royals scored 4 runs off of home runs. Alex Gordon had a two run shot in the 1st that landed in the fountains in  right field. Mike Aviles went deep for his first career home run, it was also a two run home run.

For the second strait night the Royals were able to get out to a 5-1 lead. Also for the second strait night the Royals blow there 5-1 lead. Tonight the final score was 11-5 after the Royals bullpen was hammered for 10 runs.

The Royals have really showed that you can never count the other team out. The bullpen that has been one of the more dependable parts of the team over the past few years, and now has been responsible for some pretty amazing blown leads. There was the game against Minnesota that we had a 5 run lead in the ninth with one out, they gave up 5 runs in the inning and lost in extras. There was the game in New York where Jose Guillen hit the grand slam late in the game to make it a 10-6 game, the Yankees won that one 12-11. Then there was last night when they had a 5-1 lead late in the game, and we gave 5 runs and lost 6-5. Now tonight the Royals decided to have a repeat performance of last night.

Going into the 7th inning the Royals were up 5-1. Because of Kyle Davies pitch count the recent call-up Jeff Fulchino came into the game. Fulchino gave up 3 runs and left the game with a 5-4 lead. Jimmy Gobble then came in, still with no outs and 3 runs scored. Gobble loaded the bases, and with the way things have been going it was not surprising what happened. David Murphy hit a grand slam, and put his team up 7-5. The Royals continued to give up runs and lost 11-5.

One bright spot tonight was Mark Grudzielanek, who had 4 RBI’s including a 2 run homer. Mark also helped the team on defense by making a great play on a double-play. Jose Guillen also stayed hot as he got 3 hits on the night.

Well, I’m not really sure what to think of this game. The Royals lose 11-12 to the Yankees, and showed great offense. Unfortunatly as you can see by the score it wasn’t a great pitching day for KC though. Brian Bannister pitched today going against Andy Pettitte of the Yankees.

In the first inning Jose Guillen hit a two run home run to left field, where the wind was blowing out. The Yankees got a run back as a ball hit by Jason Giambi to second baseman Alberto Callaspo, who was playing in shallow right field had the ball bounce off of the grass and over his head. The Royals came back and put up three more runs to give them a 5-1 lead. Brian Bannister had appeared to look pretty good up until this point in the fourth inning when the Royals gave up 5 runs. After the game had been tied up at six Jose Guillen steped up to the plate with 3 RBI’s already on the day and the bases loaded. Guillen then hit his second home run of the game, a grand slam, giving him 7 RBI’s for the game. The Royals then blew the lead they had and gave up the winning hit to former Royal Johnny Damon in the ninth that got a run home.

It’s really tough to watch the Royals have the best offensive game of the season and still lose. The Royals have shown what makes them a losing team in this series. Yesterday when the pitching only gave up 1 run, the hitting was only able to produce 2 runs. Even though they got the win yesterday they missed some chances to score. And today when we are able to actually produce a lot of runs (which almost never happens) the pitching gives up 12 runs. Imagine how Jose Guillen would feel now. He has a career game with a grand slam and still loses. It is embarassing to lose a game that a player has 7 RBI’s in.

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.

Kansas City is swept tonight after losing 6-2 to the Chicago White Sox. Gil Meche pitched tonight for the Royals and gave up 5 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. Joel Peralta came in to pitch in relief as he was the only reliever not used in yesterday’s 15 inning game that the White Sox won with a walk-off home run.

This was a pretty bad series for the Royals, obviously any series that you are swept in has to be bad. The pitching for KC gave up a lot of home runs, which the Sox are known for hitting hom runs but the Royal still gave up to many. I believe it was 8 home runs that the White Sox hit in this series. Only one of these came in tonight’s game. Jim Thome hit his second of the series off of Peralta.

One very good thing about this series also had to do with home runs. Mark Teahen who broke out for 18 home runs in 2006 has been looking for his power stroke since then. Last year was Teahen’s first full year in the majors and dropped to only 7 home runs. Teahen had still been struggling to hit for power this season with only 2 homers coming into the White Sox series. In this series he really seemed to have have found this power stroke again, hitting a home run in each of the three games of the series. Now I don’t want to overreact about only three games, but I am really excited about Teahen hitting well. He had been a guy that had been somewhat of a dissapointment since 2006. David Dejesus is also hitting well with a 9 game hit streak after tonight.

The Royals now head to New York to face the Yankee’s.

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.

The Royals were able to put together a good pitching performance and good run output into the same game for the first time in a while, easily defeating the Clevland Indians 6-1.

Former Royal Paul Byrd was hit pretty hard today, giving up two home runs. Jose Guillen hit his 7th of the season while Mark Grudzielanek hit his 1st of the season. Scott Elarton (who is also a former Royal) pitched in today’s game in relief for the Indians. Brian Bannister pitched a great game going into the 8th inning before giving up his first and only run of the game on a solo home run. Since I wrote about Tony Pena Jr. needing to have less of a role on the team he has not started the last two games (coming in late in eacgh game).

The Royals have won two strait going into tommorrow’s off day and played really well today. The team played a great game in all facets and won easily, they will hope to continue this play as they go on a road trip. Despite being in last place with a 23-34 record the Royals have played well against division opponents so far this season.

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 Kansas City Royals lost to the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night by the score of 5-0.  I think the Royals were still thinking about last nights game when they blew the lead and ended up losing in ten innings.  The Royals really need to move on and hopefully win some games this weekend.

Luke Hochevar threw 5 1/3 innings while giving up nine hits and all five runs to take the loss.  Hochevar did not have his best stuff and it really showed against the Twins who roughed him up.

Ron Mahay, Yasuhiko Yabuta, and Neal Musser all pitched out of the bullpen and all did a pretty good job even though they gave up hits.  The key for a relief pitcher is to not let runs score, and they did not allow a run to score so good job.

Alex Gordon had a rbi double in the ninth inning.  That was about the highlight of the game for Royals.

Royals Blog

What a disappoint way to lose a game as the Kansas City Royals blew a five run lead in the ninth inning and then gave up a run in the tenth inning as they lost to the Minnesota Twins 9-8 on Wednesday night.

Joel Peralta gave up the game tying home run in the ninth inning to Craig Monroe and then gave up the game winning home run to Justin Morneau in the tenth inning as he took the loss for the Royals.

I suppose we can put some of that blame on Ramon Ramirez as well as he was accounted for four runs in the ninth inning. He was the one that got the Royals in the jam to begin with.  What a waste of a good start my Zack Greinke threw eight innings and only allowed five hits and three runs.

Miguel Olivo led the Royals with two rbi and then four other players had one rbi in the game.  David DeJesus, Joey Gathright, Alex Gordon, and Jose Guillen all had one rbi in the game.

Pretty much it was a tough loss for the Royals who pretty much had the game wrapped up.  Hopefully it doesn’t hurt them in the mental aspect of the game.  Royals Blog