Righting the Ship

Maybe it was just one game, but the Royals took a collective deep sigh of relief after the win last night in Texas. It took ANOTHER extra inning, but the Royals managed to shake off that nightmare series in Baltimore and hopefully turn back into that team we remember from about  two weeks ago.

More Home Runs

During the 14th inning you could almost hear the Royals taking out weeks of pent-up aggression as they hit three HRs to break the game open and give Joakim Soria the chance to close a game that he couldn't blow. These came after Alex Gordon's game-tying blast that continued their domination of Texas closer Neftali Feliz, who has now blown three saves in-a-row against the Royals. This team may not have a guy who will hit 40 HRs, but there are about 4-5 guys who could hit 20. In the last SIX YEARS (2005-2010), the Royals players have combined for exactly four 20 HR+ seasons! This includes three years in which not one player on the team was able to hit 20 HRs. So if it seems strange to see any showing of power - albeit a modest showing - from the Royals players, you're not imagining things because it has been a long time since your KC Royals have displayed any team power. Although this team does include Chris Getz and Alcides Escobar who might get out homered by nearly every NL pitching staff, so we're probably not going to break any records, but having a few guys in the line-up is better than nothing.

One in, One out

There must have been something seriously wrong with Robinson Tejada because you just don't cut ties with one of your most effective relievers over the past two years whom you are paying $1.5 mil, to go claim someone just released by another team. But that is the nature of bullpen work, enter Mr. Felipe Paulino who stepped right in and filled that "long" reliever role perfectly last night, which most likely led to a Dayton Moore elbow strain from patting himself on the back after that textbook display of GM-ing. Unfortunately, this was necessitated by the apparent rapid failure of the bullpen-to-starter move for Nate Adcock. Not to mention a long line of Royals starters unable to put up more than five innings of mediocre work, B. Chen where are you? I'd imagine we'll see at least one more try at it from Adcock, but this was probably doomed from the start and doesn't have a great solution. The Royals are currently working with a rotation that might have one major league 5th stater (Francis or Hoch, depending on the night), Dan Duffy and 2-3 pitchers who might struggle to beat out Jeff Suppan in Omaha. Vin Mazzaro looks better every day.

Splitt's Grips: RIP

Your broadcasts will be sorely missed here at the PBR.