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.

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.