Gameday Commentary

-- Top 1: Did Angel Berroa REALLY just sacrifice bunt DeJesus to 2nd with nobody out in the top of the 1st? I assume it was a sacrifice only in the sense that he moved him over unintentionally. If not, someone grab an exorcist, posthaste. We need to extract the ghost of Tony Pena from Buddy's Body, stat.

2-0, so now I'm hopeful.

-- Bottom 1 through Top 3: No comment. Can't write. Eating lunch from Chipotle.

You know the fully loaded beef burrito from Chipotle has 1300 calories? Yikes.

-- Bottom 3: The Royals have pounded Radke (but aren't taking full advantage) and Carrasco has been very effective, yet again proving I need to stop making predictions.

-- Bottom 4: Leadoff walk. Carrasco's K.O.D.? After going 3-0 on Ford, he somehow managed to get out of it with a fly ball-strikeout-ground ball sequence.

Carrasco's saving grace is that he's a solid groundball pitcher. Although I have no inclination to conduct such analyses myself, I'd be intrigued to see if the indicators of success are different for extreme groundball pitchers (other than knowing simply that groundballs are better than flyballs). Just curious.

-- Top 5. Tony G. has struckout twice with 2 runners on base today.

-- Bottom 7: Tense moments. D.J. cruised through 6 but sputtered in the 7th (credit due, he came back to strikeout Rivas and get Stewart to fly out to center). Overall, a strong tourniquet performance for D.J.

Now, can J-Gob get Mauer with the bases loaded and two outs?

Yes!

-- Top 8: Teahen worked a walk against a tough left-handed pitcher. Nicely done. Now Tony G. will strikeout. Indeed.

Why does Shane Costa wear a Braves hat in his Yahoo! Sports glamour pic? Is that even Shane Costa? Whomever he is, he's just another strikeout victim.

-- Bottom 8: Buddy's using Jimmy Gobble in a late-and-close situation. I hope he performs well, because I still have hopes this guy can be an effective major league pitcher. He's only 1 season removed from being a top Royal pitching prospect (and one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball); could his star fade THAT quickly?

Maybe he doesn't have the stamina and stuff to be a starter, so perhaps the move to the 'pen is for the best. He appears to throw harder in short bursts, which should help improve his unbelievably low K rate.

1-2-3, Jimmy's the man for me. Damn you, Angel Berroa. Damn you.

Mike Mac for the 4-out save? That's a rarity. One down!

-- Top 9: Let's put the game away! No, wait, its time for some Buddyball - sacrificing DeJesus to third. Remember that scene in the Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers when Saruman inhabited the body of Theoden for a spell? Tony Pena is Saruman.

Just givin' away outs. Anyway, it worked like a charm -- for the Twins, as T. Long struck out.

-- Bottom 9. I have an uneasy feeling about this game. I have a good feeling about this game!

Very nice win for the Royals in the game I least expected them to win in this series. It won't get much easier with the Angels this weekend, but at least they're off the road for a while.