Extra, Extra

It took two extra inning games and two blown saves from Neftali Feliz, but the Royals finally snapped their losing streak and now have a one game winning steak going into the big I-70 series. I, like everyone else, was on the verge of calling this team the "same old Royals" heading into the 9th inning of last night's game against the Rangers. A quick recap of the 35 innings which led up to that; Monday the Tribe embarrassed the Royals in historic fashion and on Tuesday it was more of the same but with less scoring, the result of this may simply be admitting that the Indians are actually good and not a fluke like the Royals. Wednesday saw the Royals walk 13, get back-to-back pinch runners picked off and miss another easy chance to win in the 10th. This game in many ways was even more pathetic than the 19-1 loss, the Royals looked so helpless, yet they had every opportunity to win, but appeared as if that was physically impossible. Then came the first eight innings of yesterday's game that saw more runners thrown out stealing, picked-off and stretching singles and pretty much made all 25 Royals fans in attendance cringe.Then possible AL MVP candidate Eric Hosmer ends the starting pitcher's night with a single, then the Royals' AL MVP candidate #2 Francouer singles and after a couple forgettable ABs Aviles stepped-up and flicked away 10 Neftali Feliz fastballs - does he not have an off-speed pitch - and then singled to tie the game. Again in the tenth Frenchy and Hosmer led the way and the Royals squeaked out a much needed victory.

Oh and by the way...

These four games brought about even more shifting in the roster which resulted in three new members in the bullpen and a two new faces in the starting rotation. The injury to Kyle Davies forced Vin Mazzaro into action a day early and we all know how that turned out. I'm mean really all he has to do is throw three consecutive complete game shutouts and his ERA would be down to a respectable 4.3. Following the game Vinny was told to pack his bags for Omaha and work on not allowing 10-run innings. In addition Kyle Davies was placed on the DL, maybe never to return to the Royals rotation which would be an interesting way to end your career with a team. Jeremy Jeffress and Jarrod Dyson were sent packing as well, supposedly to allow some fresh arms to enter the bullpen, but I'm guessing that it will be a few weeks or longer before we see them again. Christmas came early for the PBR and we actually got what we wished for, in the last post I begged for someone to "suck bad enough" to allow for the Royals to call-up a rookie starting pitcher and Vinny took care of that in fine fashion. The decision to start Nate Adcock is a bit strange, but most likely very temporary so as not to be worth the added stress on my keyboard in discussing, at least for now. The Duffman is hopefully here to stay, he may not be Greinke from 2009, but any change to the rotation is welcome and despite walking 6, he proved that he can also strike-out a hitter when need be.

Yosty's new line-up card

For all of the crazy things Yosty does, every once in a while he stumbles onto something that might actually work and proves that he may not be quite as stuck in convention as we think. He realized that trotting Chris Getz and his .218 average or grip-it-and-rip-it Mike Aviles might not be the best way to handle the #1 spot in your line-up. Butler did get another blow to his ego, but as of right now Hosmer and Frenchy are your two best hitters, so it works. Check this out for a slightly more detailed account of how it might help the team going forward. We'll see how long this sticks, however I do like the thought process because finding a good place for Alex Gordon is also an added benefit while not making him look bad because Hosmer is the future #3 hitter. It hasn't worked out yet in terms of the quantity of runs, but if Hosmer is batting #5 or #6 the Royals don't push either of those games to extra innings.

I-70 Series

Also known as Missouri's biggest sporting event and the only time the Royals sellout tickets after opening day. The goal is obviously taking two out of three, getting back to .500 and erasing what had been building up to be an embarassing homestand , that is until last night's bit of good fortune. Good luck to the Royals pitchers who will be attempting to keep the Cardinals line-up from hitting balls onto I-70 and maybe the new line-up can help the Royals get back to scoring some runs.