Royals Swept Again

After watching the Royals implode on Friday night, I'm convinced that Tony Pena is still managing this club. He has to be. How else could you explain leaving a reliever in long enough to see a five run lead evaporate in the ninth inning?

It wasn't all Mike Woods' fault. He did walk the leadoff hitter, which is mind blowing when you are up by five runs and you just need three outs. But Angel Berroa booted a ball off Molina's bat and that certainly didn't help. Following Berroa's error, McPherson singled. At that point, if you are the manager, don't you have at least one guy up in the pen who is getting ready as quickly as possible? Not Pena, I mean Schaef.

Cabrera blooped a ball in for a hit and all of a sudden, the score was 8-4 and the bases were juiced. This is where Schaefer blew the game. He left Wood in and didn't even visit the mound, nor did he send Hansen out. Wouldn't even a little league manager visit the mound in this scenario? You do whatever you need to do to get the next guy ready. Of course, if Schaefer would have had someone up a little earlier, it would have helped.

MacDougal started stretching out and getting ready. Wood pitched to Adam Kennedy and got him to ground to Berroa, who threw the ball into right field trying for the force at second, allowing three runs to score, and Kennedy ended up at third. Unbelievably, Schaefer left Wood in the game. Chone Figgins game-tying single changed that and finally Wood was gone. MacDougal got out of the inning, but McPherson ended the game in the 10th with a solo shot.

Just a horribly managed game…and so Tony Pena-like, that I can't believe anybody but Tony Pena would actually manage a game in such a fashion.

If ever this team was going to quit, it would have been after that game. And they did get drilled on Saturday 14-1. It didn't look like the team quit as much as it looked like the Angels couldn't do anything wrong. That's going to happen sometimes.

In the third game of the series, the Royals fought from behind, led by Tony Graffanino's five hits, and almost pulled this one out in the end—but lost by one run—again. This team has enough players like Mike Sweeney, Matt Stairs, and Tony Graffanino who don't quit that it seems to be sustaining the Royals. Hopefully it continues to do so.