Royals Win 4th Straight

I have no clue what's going on with this team, but it's a blast to watch. The team that couldn't hit cut off men, couldn't move runners, couldn't throw strikes, is suddenly doing all of these things and a lot more. The Royals have now won four games in a row with the 3-1 victory tonight over the Dodgers and they are 10-4 under Buddy Bell.

In by far his best outing of the season, Jose Lima was lights out—giving up 1 ER, 5 H, and picking up 6 K in 8 IP. He stayed ahead of hitters and had good control all night. You've got to feel good for a guy who looked like he might be out of work a couple of starts ago. He finally has his first win of the season.

Mike Sweeney got hurt in a nasty looking collision at first base when Jayson Werth tried to bunt his way on base in the fourth inning. Teahen made a good barehanded throw that was a little up the first base line. Sweeney stretched to make the catch and Werth, who was a couple of feet inside the foul line, slammed into Sweeney's arm bending Sweeney's wrist and elbow back. Why home plate umpire Bill Miller didn't call Werth out is a mystery. Sweeney has a sprained wrist and elbow and will be evaluated tomorrow.

In the 6th inning, Werth hit a little dinker off the plate and when Lima fielded the ball, he had to make sure he didn't hit Werth with the throw. Werth was at least five feet inside the line this time. Again, Miller made no call. I can't believe that Werth didn't get a ball under the chin during his next at bat in the sixth inning. Guys are going to get hurt in this game, but there's no excuse for a guy who just doesn't know how to play the game right. He's putting first baseman in jeopardy and someone has got to call him on it.

Emil Brown came up big again tonight, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. And Matt Stairs picked up another RBI, going 1-for-3. That was all the Royals would need behind Lima's strong effort. MacDougal pitched the ninth inning and picked up the save.

I didn't get a chance to say anything yet about Shane Costa's performance in the Royals 3-2 win last night, but his 3-for-3 effort was impressive—especially the home run he hit in the fifth inning against Jeff Weaver on a 3-2 count. He hasn't got enough AB's yet for us to really know how good he is, but he's 8-for-19 (a .421 average) and he's only struck out once in 8 games.

With the win tonight, the Royals are still 18 games under .500, but it's hard to believe the difference since Pena picked up his ball and went home. When the Royals were searching for a new manager, baseball pundits continually said that the difference between a good manager and a bad manager is only about 6 or 7 games over the course of a season. If that's true, then Tony Pena must have been one of the worst managers in history.

I still am not convinced that this turn around is completely due to Bell, but its tough to make that argument when they are playing so well. So I won't. I'll just enjoy it.

Tomorrow night, the Royals put Zack Greinke (1-7, 6.01) on the mound hoping for a sweep. The Dodgers will send Derek Lowe (5-6, 3.62) to counter Greinke and to try to stop the bleeding.