The Kansas City Royals finished up a three game sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 10-4 blowout on Wednesday night. Hell of a series for the Royals as they wind down the season.

The bottom of the order provided a lot of offense for the Royals as Mitch Maier had three rbi and he was followed by John Buck and Tony Pena Jr. who both had two rbi. Jose Guillen, Alex Gordon, and Joey Gathright provided the other three rbi for the Royals as they had a great game at the plate.

On the mound it was Brian Bannister who picked up the win after throwing six innings. Bannister gave up seven hits but did not allow a run. The only run that the Tigers scored was charged to Kip Wells. Jimmy Gobble and Ron Mahay tossed an inning of relief each as well. Mahay did have problems as he gave up a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Good thing the offense scored so many runs!

The Royals will now be off on Thursday and then take on the Minnesota Twins for the final series of the weekend.

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Kyle Davies threw eight strong innings and the Kansas City Royals shut out the visiting Seattle Mariners on Monday night by the score of 3-0. Davies only gave up four hits and then Joakim Soria came in for the ninth inning and picked up his 38th save of the season.

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

The Kansas City Royals were blasted out of Cleveland as the Indians beat the visiting Royals by the score of 10-3. The Royals were swept in the three game series against the Indians and well they are probably glad to get out of Cleveland!

Zack Greinke got the start for the Royals on the mound and gave up six hits and five runs (only one was earned) in five innings of action. Greinke did give up one home run in the game while walking one and striking out four. Errors really hurt Greinke and the Royals as you can tell with only one of the five runs being earned.

Robinson Tejeda and Joel Peralta were both tagged for one run in relief while Josh Newman was charged with three runs in the eighth inning. Every Royals pitcher that stepped on the mound Thursday pitched terribly!

Mark Teahen led the team at the plate with two rbi as he had a two run double in the fifth inning. Teahen then scored on a rbi single by Tony Pena Jr.

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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.

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.

No I’m not talking about switch hitting catcher Brayan Pena, who the Royals aquired off of waivers friday. I’m talking about Tony Pena Jr.

The Royals organization must make some sort of change with the lack of offense,(last in runs) power(last in HR’s) and speed(second to last in caught stealing)in the lineup. For a team with these kind of offensive numbers it’s probably not a smart idea to have 5 players on the current 25 man roster that are middle infielders(and also 3 catchers now). Manager Trey Hillman has stated that Pena Jr. will continue to be used as the Royals starting shortstop.

Despite TPJ’s above-average defense, he is hitting .157 with a .177 OBP.  I don’t care if he plays with Ozzie Smith’s defense these kind of numbers are unbearable. Something must be done with him. He cannot continue to start every night and give the opposing pitcher an automatic out every time up to bat. Pena Jr. has no idea which pitch’s to swing at, and almost never draws a walk. He is also a bad baserunner at a position that usually has speed.

There is no way the Royals can be a winning team with the lowest runs scored in the major leagues, no matter how many young pitchers they load the system with. Something must be done to help this awful lineup that the Royals put on the field every night, and releasing TPJ should be the first move.

The Kansas City Royals struggled at the plate as they only had three hits against Daniel Cabrera on Thursday night.  The Royals lost to the Baltimore Orioles by the score of 4-1 in the game.

Tony Pena Jr had the one rbi for the Royals as he singled in Ross Gload in the fifth inning.  Gload and Alex Gordon had the other two hits for the Royals as they were shut down by Cabrera in the game.

Luke Hochevar took the loss as he pitched seven innings and gave up four runs in the game.  Hochevar gave up five hits while walking two and stricking out five batters.

The Royals are now 15-19 on the season.  Royals Blog

Zack Greinke pitched seven strong innings to pitch the Kansas City Royals past the Los Angeles Angels by the score of 9-4.  Greinke picked up his fourth win as he improved to 4-1 on the season.

David DeJesus led the Royals with three RBI as he hit a three run home run in the second inning.  Alex Gordon had two RBI in the game as he hit a two run home run in the fourth inning as well.  Billy Butler, Ross Gload, John Buck, and Tony Pena Jr. all had one RBI in the game.

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The Kansas City Royals outhit the Texas Rangers 6-5 on Thursday afternoon but lost the game 2-1.  The Rangers hit two home runs off Royals starter Zack Greinke and that was all they needed as the Royals offense hit like crap.

Greinke took the loss which was his first of the season in the game.  He did throw seven inning and struckout nine batters, but had the two mistakes to Ian Kinsler and Ramon Vazquez who went deep.

The only run the Royals could manage came in the third inning when Mark Grudzielanek singled in Tony Pena Jr.  The Royals just could never get a rally going at all in the game.

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