Avert Your Eyes

Just a brutal, BRUTAL loss today. Where to begin. Brutal.

-- Jose Contreras, a notoriously wild pitcher, manages to issue only 1 walk in 8 innings. Does this team understand who's on the mound? Make the guy throw strikes.

-- The Royals fail to score runs with 2 runners on base in both the 7th and 9th innings.

-- And the coup de grace - 3 consecutive walks with 2 outs in the 8th to yield the tying and winning runs. Its hard to tell exactly what went down from MLB Gamecast, but I think Pena yanked Sisco in the middle of an at-bat, putting incredible pressure on Burgos, who came in already down in the count with the bases loaded. Wow.

Look, the pitchers failed to perform in the crunch again. Sisco bombed, and Pena can't pitch for them. But Greinke was throwing a gem today - 7.1 IP, 2H, 1BB, 5K, 85 pitches - and Pena panicked by sending in Sisco, who is overworked and doesn't fare well with inherited runners yet. Greinke was completely in control today, and despite a couple of blips in the 8th, he earned the right to try to get out that jam. He was at 85 PITCHES.

Pena just can't get out of his own way. He gets no benefit of the doubt from me - everytime he makes a decision that results in a loss, even though its the players who ultimately fail, I'm going to blame him.