I understand that the Royals are playing out of there minds to start the season. In fact, I have heard the Kansas City Royals mentioned more time on ESPN so far this season then I have the last three years combined. Don’t misunderstand the following as hate mail by any means. But I am now spoiled. I am used to the Royals winning, and by golly, that is what I expect.
Everything looked good in the beginning of the game, and the bats were hitting. They took a quick 4-0 lead in the first couple innings of the game, and things looked to be back on track. Grienke was pitching out of a lot of trouble every inning, but no runs were scoring. With that 0.75 ERA, and perfect 3-0 record, you would think that this one was in the bag. In the 5th inning the A’s snuck three runs (two earned) from Grienke, ballooning his ERA to 1.24!
He was relieved by Ramirez, and left the game with the lead. However, just like yesterday, they fought back in the late innings, caught up and passed the Royals with one run in the 6th, and 2 more in the 7th, creating a one run deficit for the Royals going into the 8th.
But that was all she wrote for the bats of K.C., and they fall to the A’s again, 5-6, and officially find themselves at .500 (9-9), losing their third straight contest.
Some concerns are growing with me about this bullpen. The Royals are giving themselves a chance to win every game, by creating situations of having the lead going into the late innings, but it is the bullpen pitching that has really been giving up a lot of runs lately. Granted the 8 runs scored on them in the 8th inning yesterday was not a deciding factor of the game, however, it is a heck of a lot easier to get something started and rip off a couple runs, and jump right back into a game, rather than be down by 9 or so runs. It could really take your interest right out of the game.
Kansas is now 9-9, and look to avoid the sweep tomorrow, Sunday. Guillen has the hot bat right now, let’s see if they can take from that and build on it.