Walking in the rain

Twins 7, Royals 5
W-Romero (1-0), L-Leskanic (0-2), S-Nathan (5)
Royals Season Record: 5 Wins, 10 Loses

When Kevin Appier left with an injury to his right elbow after pitching only one inning, I thought we were in trouble. Then Jimmy Gobble pitched six tough innings and it looked like the game was in the bag.

Pena handed the ball to Scott Sullivan and our lead shrank to 5-4 after he gave up three runs. Leskanic followed Sullivan and blew the game, giving up three more runs while walking two guys. Not to be outdone, Reyes followed Leskanic and walked three guys, including one with the bases loaded.

Bullpens are going to blow games. But to see another game given away simply because we have guys who do no throw strikes is extremely frustrating to watch. Our bullpen walked six guys tonight in the final two innings of the game. We can't possibly win games doing that. I'd rather see an 85 mph fastball thrown right down main street getting smashed into the Little K before seeing hitter after hitter given free passes.

According to Pena in a post game interview, we don't know how serious Appier's injury is. But if it is serious, and if we need to bring somebody up, let's give Greinke a shot. He's a confident kid. (Check out his website: Zack Greinke for proof.) If he gets hit hard, he gets hit hard. So what? Gobble got hit hard last year when he first came up. He has turned in two fantastic outings this year and his confidence seems to be growing.

This was another tough loss tonight. But let's not panic. We are only fifteen games into the season and we've been in almost every game we've played. If we would have had any kind of pitching, our record may be reversed. But there's nothing we can do about that now. What we can do is stress the importance of throwing strikes and when a pitcher starts to nibble, he needs to be reminded of it or he needs to be removed.

Tomorrow night we have May (0-3, 8.80 ERA) going against Greisinger (0-0, 10.80 ERA). Let's see if Darrell can get put one in the W column.