The Royals must be glad to get rid of these quick 2-game series. They don’t seem to be able to win the second game, especially after winning the first. Tomko took the loss today, and watched his record slip to 1-2, his ERA is thankfully a solid 3.60. The Royals could not rebound from giving up 5 runs in the first 5 innings. A small rally in the 9th inning did not produce enough runs to make it interesting, only scoring one run, and bring the Royals within 2 runs (3-5). F. Rodriguez got the save in this one, and secured the Angels the win.
Jon Garland, who has pitched more games against the Royals (with the most wins of any pitcher), looked very good, and comfortable out there. The Royals could only put together 3 runs, on 7 hits, and 3 walks. This is Garlands first year with the Angels, coming off an entire career with the Chicago White Sox. His comfort level is most likely attributed to his seemingly easy outings against Kansas City throughout his tenure in Chicago.
Tomko, on the other hand, did not fair as well. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 5 runs, and walked one, striking out only 3 batters. He was just out pitched today. Period. He did not have an outing that raised any flags or anything like that, he actually pitched fairly well. The score can get away from you pretty fast when you give up a bases loaded double. As it did here. Even Hillman wasn’t to hard on him after the game in his post game evaluation.
The Royals made it interesting, scoring a run in the 4th to pull within one run, at 3-2, but that was as close as they were going to come. The RBI came off the bat of Jose Guillen, who shot a double, bring home the runner on second.
They tacked on a last minute run in the 9th, but could not catch up today. The Royals lose the second game of the series to the Angels, 3-5, and see there record fall to a “not so shabby” 9-7, 2 games above .500.
Kansas City is staying out west to take on the Oakland Athletics tomorrow. We are back to normal 3 and 4 game series, let’s see if that makes a difference as well.