A Train Wreck

The 14-6 drubbing at the hands of the White Sox last night was a train wreck. As much as you didn't want to look, you couldn't help but glance at our pitchers line scores to see which ones got shellacked. Turns out, every Royals pitcher was hit hard—Greinke took the top prize, giving up 7 ER in 3 1/3 IP.

Then as you continue passing the train wreck with your foot on the brake, you had to take a look at the White Sox box score to see how they came up with 14 runs on 22 hits. Podsednik had three hits; so did Rowand; so did Pierzynski; so did Dye; so did Harris, so did Uribe—their number nine hitter. And on and on it went.

The Royals came up with 16 hits of their own and didn't even make this game close. The White Sox are probably past the point in the season where most analysts are wondering whether they are for real or not. They've got three good starting pitchers at top of their rotation in Garland, Buehrle, and Garcia. They have plenty of guys who can hit. And they have speed on the base paths. They are for real.

Even knowing how much better the White Sox are than the Royals, this was still a frustrating game to watch. Greinke gave up five hits in a row in the first inning. That was probably a clue that he either didn't have his best stuff or he was way out of sync. But somebody needed to right his ship—be it Buck, or Hansen, or Bell. To just let a guy get shelled by one hitter after another is an odd thing to do.

Shawn Camp, fresh up from Omaha, wasn't much better in relief. He gave up 2 ER in 2 2/3 IP. Sisco didn't look all that hot either. And Gobble gave up 3 more ER in 2 IP. By the end of the game, our pitching staff threw 210 pitches. Obviously, the White Sox worked the count well and when they got pitches they could handle, they made the most of it.

Once again, our defense didn't exactly sparkle. DeJesus made an error and Berroa made two—even though he was officially only given one. Konerko smashed a ball at him in the seventh inning that one hopped over Berroa's glove into left-center field. Split and Davis seemed to think it was a hit and complimented Berroa's solid defense—only to have the next hitter, Pierzynski hit a ball right through Berroa's wickets. He didn't stay down on the ball long enough and picked up his 11th error of the season.

I beg to differ with Split and Davis about Berroa's solid defense this season. He's made 11 errors and ranks 17th in fielding percentage (.974) among the 25 MLB shortstops who qualify with enough chances. Even Neifi Perez ranks higher (.981). Berroa has a flare for making the tough play while continually not making the routine play. Give me the guy who can make the routine play. They happen much more frequently.

Before the game, Mike Wood was sent to Omaha and Shawn Camp was recalled. If the Royals had anything to play for this season, this move wouldn't make sense. Camp has an ERA over 10.00 in Kansas City this season—it actually went down after his poor performance last night. But the Royals realize that they may need some help in the starting rotation and they've chosen Wood to be the guy, so they want him to go to Omaha for 10 to 14 days and get a few starts there before handing him the ball in Kansas City. Makes sense to a degree. But to be honest, his 2004 numbers as a starter (3-8, 5.94 ERA in 17 starts) hardly convince me that he's a viable option for the rotation. He seems to have found his niche in middle relief. As much as we need starting pitching, why Wood?

Tonight could be another tough one to watch. Jose Lima (3-8, 6.92) goes against Mark Buehrle (11-3, 2.66).