Royals Get 2 out of 3 in SF

I was a little greedy this afternoon. I was really hoping for a sweep, but if you would have told me ahead of time that we'd take two out of three in San Francisco, I would have been thrilled.

What in the world is going on with D. J. Carrasco? He pitched out of our pen in seasons past and always showed promise, but all of a sudden, he's the best starter on our staff. Sounds like Guy Hansen is a big reason for Carrasco's success since he got him to cut down on his many different arm angles and he got him to cut down on his pitch repertoire. D. J. looks confident and he should—he's winning ball games.

Zack Greinke has been an odd one to figure out. To start the season, he was lights out, but got zero run support—almost literally. Over his last few starts, the offense has manufactured a few runs and he's just been hit too hard to keep us in the ballgame. With an ERA nearing 5.00, he looks quite confused. Let's hope that Hansen can work a little magic on Zack. We know Zack has the stuff, now he's got to learn how to pitch.

Runelvys Hernandez picked up the win yesterday, but he's still only 3-7 with an ERA over 5.00. He looks like a shadow of the guy who dominated hitters early in 2003 before he got hurt. And his 1.53 WHIP isn't going to keep us in many games.

I really thought that Jose Lima would be released before he was given the ball again, but Bell said that as far as he's concerned, Lima was only 0-1 since Bell has only seen him pitch once. Lima gave up 3 ER in 5 IP today and looked decent, but not good enough to win, and 13 starts into the season, he still doesn't have a win. I guess on a positive note, he did lower his ERA from 8.39 to 8.16 today.

For the second day in a row, Tony Graffanino hit in the three hole, and he continues to produce there. He was 2-for-5 today with an RBI, raising his average to .298. He's swinging a hot bat and I don't see how Bell can take him out of the line up even when Sweeney does return.

Speaking of which, Sweeney missed his second straight game. Yesterday, Bell said that he was just resting him. Now we find out that he's got a sore rib. I'm hoping this isn't one of those things that takes 7 or 10 games to heal again. Harvey is due to come off his rehab assignment any day, and we've still got Stairs and Graff who can plan first, so we're okay in that regards. But we really do need Sweeney's bat in the line up.

Tomorrow night, the Royals open a new series in Arizona. Zack Greinke (1-7, 4.91) goes against Russ Ortiz (4-5, 5.62).