A Turning Point?

The Royals just took two out of three games from the best team in baseball and you have to wonder if we won't look back on this series as a possible turning point for this franchise—not necessarily for this season, but for the future.

The Royals did plenty of things wrong yesterday and usually good baseball teams beat teams who make mistakes, but not this time. With the White Sox up 1-0, Emil Brown doubled to lead off the bottom half of the fifth inning. Mark Teahen simply needed to move Brown to third—especially knowing how well Garland was throwing. But he seems incapable of pulling a ball—even to move a runner. He slaps at everything and with a natural inside out swing, he couldn't get the job done. I would still rather see him getting his on the job training in Omaha than Kansas City, but apparently Baird is sticking with him on this level.

Another mistake that cost the Royals was Runelvys Hernandez hitting Iguchi to lead off the sixth inning. After Perez doubled, Dye slammed a three run shot over the wall and the Royals were down 4-0. A couple of hitters later, Crede muscled up and hit another home run to give the White Sox a 5-0 lead.

But Mike Sweeney did what he always does when he is healthy—he picked the Royals up off the mat. He hit a two run home run to trim the lead to 5-2 White Sox. But Garland was still in the game. DeJesus knocked him out of the game in the eighth with a lead off single. And after Long reached on an error, Sweeney scorched a ball down the left field line that almost put a whole in one of the seats out there. Game tied 5-5.

As you know by now, the game ended up in extra innings with both teams using 7 pitchers and 19 players. Finally, in the 13th inning, after singles by DeJesus, Ambres, and Sweeney, Brown singled home the winning run.

The White Sox are protesting though, saying that Shawn Camp wasn't on the line up card before the game, even though he is on the 25-man roster. Bell claims that the line up card only has to contain the starting line up and that listing everybody else is just a courtesy. I don't know who is right, but what is the deal with Bell and line up cards? Maybe Schaeffer or somebody else better start double-checking these things before every game because Bell obviously has a problem doing so.

But after going 4-2 on this homestand, and 8-6 since the break, this team is starting to look like they belong in the major leagues. They are now just one game under .500 (25-26) since Bell took over and while I disagree with some of his and Baird's personnel decisions, it's hard to argue with Bell's record. He came into a horrible situation that included bickering in the clubhouse and a former manager who quit on his team after trying to convince them to never do so, and he appears to be righting this ship.

The Royals open a new series tonight in Tampa, sending Kyle Snyder (0-1, 6.35) against Scott Kazmir (5-7, 4.15). The Royals have fared well against the East this season, going 10-9 overall and they are 3-1 against the Devil Rays this season.