Lima Improves to 3-8 in Royals Win

Maybe Jose Lima was right after all. He hasn't strung a bunch of wins together like he predicted he would, but he has strung several good starts together. Tonight, in the Royals victory over the Indians 5-3, he threw 6 innings, giving up 2 runs. He was in trouble a couple of times—especially in the first inning, but he wiggled off the hook and picked up the win to improve to 3-8, dropping his ERA below 7.00 to 6.92.

Donnie Murphy was added to the roster before the game and he came up big with a home run in his first at bat in the third inning. That made up for the error he made in the first inning. Yes, I know the official scorer changed it to a hit, but that was a joke. Murphy singled home another run in the sixth inning and ended up 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Not a bad way to start.

Newly acquired Chip Ambres was on almost every pitch he saw tonight. Of course, Sabathia threw an inordinate amount of fastballs. I guess he figured that the Royals weren't good enough to hit them. He was wrong.

Fortunately the Royals scored early and often on Sabathia because their defense tonight was atrocious. They picked up two errors and could have two more. Ambres missed a cut off man, allowing a guy to score. Teahen misplayed another ball. Emil Brown over ran a ball. Berroa made a bad throw to first base that was called a hit and it shouldn't have been.

The Royals bullpen looked good in relief of Lima. Wood, Burgos, Affeldt, and MacDougal pitched the final 4 innings and didn't give up any runs.

The Royals have a day game in Cleveland tomorrow. J.P. Howell (1-3, 8.01) goes against Jake Westbrook (6-12, 4.77).