The atmosphere was electric as the 4-2 Kansas City Royals came home today for their home opener at Kaufman Stadium. Since the stadium opened on April 10, 1973 it has been host to 3 no-hitters. With the way this pitching staff has performed the last week, beating Detroit and spoiling their grand entrance, who’s to say we won’t be seeing #4 this season.
The 2nd inning gave Bannister the most trouble as he found himself in some trouble early. 3 walks (one with the bases loaded) and two 2-out singles to Jorge Posada, and Wilson Betemit, amounted the troublesome 39 pitch inning. Wow. Now that is a lot of pitches.
He left in the 5th inning, to a thunderous applause. I think if nothing else the crowd appreciated his effort today with the weather the way it was, and also wanted to recognize the tremendous job he has done so far this season. He really is coming into his own.
Bannister amounted 6 K’s today’s even though he was finding it hard to find the strike zone in that wind. Three of those strike outs came from Alex Rodriguez as he watched strike three pass him three times like “the house by the side of the road” (thanks Ernie). This is one measure to tell the level of maturity that Bannister has acheived compared to last season. When he faced A-Rod last year he saw him two times. Both times A-Rod got a hit, rbi, run…you catch my drift. They call those home runs. This time, however, it was a different story. A-Rod ended up striking out (swinging) again to Ramon Ramirez, to cap of an 0-4 day, all on strike outs.
Here is what A-Rod had to say about Bannisters performance: “He made some great pitches — there’s not much you can do…I can’t really look back and say those were pitches I could have hit or crushed; perhaps maybe just fooled off. Today, he was much better than I was — give him a lot of credit.”
Pretty impressive coming from one of the best hitters baseball has ever seen.
The offense was sparked by solid, aggressive base running by none other then Joey Gathright himself. He led off the 1st inning with a single, stole second, and was running on an infield out ground ball, toward the first base side, and made it easily. He was then driven home by Teahen, who hit a double to left center field. In the forth it was the same old Gathright. Led off the inning with a single. Stole second. STOLE THIRD!, and was then hit home by a single to right by Grudzielanek.
At that point in the game it was 3-2 in favor of the Royals, and they never looked back. The Royals were just to much for the Yankees today. The Yankees even tried to change up some pitching here and there in attempt to gain back some of the conttrol that was lost in this one. But it was to no avail.
The Royals gave all 37,296 people, who were lucky enough to be there, a treat today. They showed a side of them that true blue fans of the team have been waiting for since their World Series Victory in 1985. They will dazzle you on the bases, and impress you from the mound. I know it is early, but the report card so far shows a lot of A’s and B’s.