As sloppy as I have ever witnessed a game being played through in the rain, the Royals and the Yankees went at it again today in, for lack of better words, soup. The field was drenched, and the players were dripping wet (even from their gloves). The rain never let up, and I am sure both teams are glad to have this one in their past. Unfortunately, in every contest there must be a loser, and the Yankees found themselves on the short end of the decision again today, dropping their second straight to this red hot Kansas City Royals team.
Not even mother nature can keep this team from winning. The rain that seemed to be coming down in buckets at times, was not even a menace to Zack Grienke, who watched another pitching performance drop his ERA to 0.60! He pitched another one of those games that at the end of the season people will contribute to the grit of this team. With weather that seemed to make playing baseball impossible, the only thing Grienke could do was pitch through 8 solid innings, soaking wet, with some of the players jerseys covered in mud. He was good enough to strike out 2, walk 2, and give up only 6 hits, not allowing a single base runner to cross home plate, to record his second win of the season, in grand, shut out baseball fashion.
Joe Girardi, manager of the Yankees, made a decision (due to the weather) to scratch their starting pitcher right before game time (Ian Kennedy) and go for a “pitching-by-committee” philosophy, in hopes that the game would be delayed for a long enough period of time to be rescheduled, or called right away on the count of rain. This decision did not work out in the best interest of Joe Girardi and his Yankees, as the game pressed on, and grounds crew members attempted to control the puddles that were forming in the infield.
As the crowd of 19,007 huddled under umbrellas, tarps, and plastic, the game did have some moments of offense in the Royals half of the 5th and 6th innings. Farnsworth, the Yankees 3rd pitcher of the day, gave up a nice home run to John Buck that sailed appropriately right into the fountain and sunk in the pool. The ball was crushed, travelling an estimated 439 feet in this extreme rain, and wind.
In the 6th inning after a pitching change for the Yanks, the original starting pitcher Ian Kennedy came in relief, and was immediately hit around, after a walk to Gordon. Gload hit an RBI double, Buck singled, and Pena Jr. hit a ground out RBI as well. This brought the Royals score to 4, and the Yankees couldn’t get anything from an increasingly tougher Grienke.
This was game 2 of 3 and the Royals are already gauranteed the win of the series, by taking their second one in a row, in a sloppy event today on the day after the home opener, and extend their winning streak to 3 (for the 2nd time this season). They will look for the sweep tomorrow, as John Bale heads off against Andy Pettitte. This will be interesting, as long as the weather cooperates, and we may see a sweep, the Royals second of this young season. They improve to a 6-2 record, and due to the White Sox lossing their game today, find themselves all alone atop the American League Central.