It was one of those days. A day that in the past the Royals would have found themselves on the losing end, after giving up the lead late. Not this year. This is a new Royals team in Kansas City. Gil Meche pitched just good enough to win this one, and received some much needed help from the bullpen to do it. Meche almost hit the century mark in pitches, with 99 (65 strikes), gave up 2 earned runs, on only 6 hits in 6 innings. His ERA is now 6.08, which is falling, and this is just the type of game that he needs to gain some of the confidence that he may have lost in his first 3 starts of the season.
Trey Hillman had this to say: “I was glad Gil got the ‘W,’ he fought himself out there a little bit but he pitched well enough to win. We made some mistakes that we shouldn’t have made tonight, but fortunately they didn’t come back to bite us and the bullpen picked us up and did a very good job.”
The bullpen entered in the 7th inning, and it took 4 pitchers to get the job done, holding the Angels scoreless for the remainder of the game. The 2 runs that were scored by the Angels in the 4th inning was all they were going to get against this pitching staff today.
This was a good thing, since the bullpen for the Angels also held the Royals scoreless for the remainder of the game. However, the lead that the Royals gained in the early innings was enough to hold on for the win.
The offense came from the usual suspects. Gathright started things off with a single in the 1st inning, but was picked off at first, looking to run, as usual. That was not what the team needed right out of the gates, but the Royalsfollowed up with 4 consecutive singles by the familiar names; Mark Grudzielanek, Mark Teahen, Billy Butler, and Alex Gordon. This explains the two runs scored in the 1st inning.
The last Royals run came again from aggressive base running by Gathright, in the 2nd inning. With two outs, Gathright singled, and then stole 2nd base. Smart base running dictates that you take off on errors, or wild pitches. Well the Royals received a gift off the glove of Weaver, the Angels pitcher, as he errored on a play, and Gathright sprinted home, for the decided winning run.
This is the type of test that the Royals needed. Once they have the lead, can they keep it? Once the Starting Pitcher is releived, does the bullpen have what it takes to shut it down for the win? Is aggressive base running helping or hurting the club?
These answers are evident, and every Kansas City fan has to like what they see. With this win today the Royals take their record to 9-6, and look towards a sweep of the Angels tomorrow. This is the last shortened 2-game series of the season, and hopefully the Royals can end them with a sweep.