Royals Give One Away; Then Stop the Bleeding

Nice to see Carrasco coming up big this afternoon after the fiasco last night when the Royals extended their losing streak to eight games.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. J.P. Howell is not ready for the major leagues yet. This time last year he was pitching in the CWS. He certainly pitched well there, but college baseball is hardly even baseball. He looks completely outmatched right now. Why put a rookie through that?

In the first inning, he threw 21 pitches, giving up a hit to Stewart to start the game and then walking Williams. We should have been out of the inning, but Teahen made a poor throw to Gotay with one out in the inning, pulling Gotay off the bag. That mistake cost us one run.

In the second inning, Howell was even less impressive, throwing 27 pitches. He walked Jones to lead off the inning, who then stole second and third. After striking out LeCroy, he walked Cuddyer. Redmon came up and drove in both guys that Howell walked, giving the Twinkies a 3-1 lead. And so the night went for Howell. He was gone after just 3 1/3 IP. Too many walks.

The Royals stayed in the game with a little offense. Costa hit a home run. And in the fifth inning the Royals got to Silva for three runs.

Sisco came on in relief of Wood in the sixth and got out of a jam, but then in the seventh inning he walked two guys. Starting to sound like a common pattern, isn't it? And of course, the Twins cashed both walks into runs.

Losing a game 11-8, especially the way we did it is frustrating to watch. I'm having a difficult time understanding why our guys are walking so many people. Is it because they are afraid to throw strikes? Bell thinks it's because they are afraid to throw fastballs.

"Some guys think the fastball is an easy pitch to hit," said Bell. "But it's not an easy pitch to hit. It's the best pitch for the pitchers and it's the toughest pitch for a hitter to center. I just think we go to our breaking stuff too much, especially when we're ahead in the count."

The Royals played considerably better this afternoon, putting up a two-spot on the board in the first inning and going on to win 3-1. D.J. pitched 6 2/3 IP and only gave up 1 ER. He walked three guys and that's a concern, but he worked around them.

The big story today was DeJesus going 4-for-5. Emil Brown went 1-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to 16 games. All those hits in the clean up spot, and he didn't pick up one RBI this entire 9-game road trip. That tells you how infrequently the top of the line up was on base.

Gobble was effective in relief of Carrasco, except for walking one guy, which could have come back to bite him. And MacDougal pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to pick up his 9th save.

We've got an off day tomorrow. On Friday we open a new series at home against the Angels, followed by the Mariners, and the Twins before the All-Stat break.