15 and Counting

Two close games. Two more loses. And now the losing streak stands at 15 games. I still don't understand why Buddy Bell chose Mike Wood to pitch the first game of the double header. We certainly don't have a stopper, if we did, this losing streak would have ended long ago, but Mike Wood is our number five guy—or a spot starter. Why him?

And what in the world was Denny Hocking doing hitting in the two hole during the first game? After going 0-for-4, he's hitting .143, and doesn't belong at the top of any line up. In fact, he really doesn't belong in the major leagues any more, but we felt the need to trade Graffanino and give the young guys a shot.

Of course, Graffanino is now the starting second baseman for the World Champions. In his 17 games with the Red Sox, all he has done is hit .358, with 1 HR and 10 RBI. And our young guys at second base, well one of them is now in Wichita (Gotay) where he belongs, and the other one, Donnie Murphy is hitting .192. Oh yeah, and our other second baseman, the aforementioned Hocking is not so young any more. He's 35. So, I'm a little lost on the trading Graffanino away to give the young guys a chance line we were fed.

Amazingly, after Mike Wood gave up 6 ER in 6 IP and the Royals were still in the game, down by just one run after the sixth inning, thanks largely to Jason Johnson's poor outing. After tying the game at 7-7, Burgos found a way to lose it in the ninth. And nobody was surprised.

The second game of the double header was extremely well played. And everybody was surprised. Especially when Jose Lima had complete control of his pitches. In the fifth inning, Dmitri Young doubled to lead off the inning. And ironically, when Lima had his best stuff of the year, he threw a wild pitch that allowed Young to take third. Young scored on a sacrifice fly and that was the ball game.

The Royals offense couldn't get anything going against Mike Maroth—managing only five hits for the game (two of which came from DeJesus). Lima finished the game. Maroth was taken out one out away from a shutout so that new closer Fernando Rodney could face Mike Sweeney. Rodney got him to pop out and the Tigers won 1-0.

Bell had this to say after the game (as reported in an article in the KC Star): "At some point, these guys are going to have to have the courage to make some adjustments. We just can’t seem to adjust. If we go along and have got a guy out there who pitches to our strength, we’re fine. But if we’ve got a pitcher who does something other than that, we really struggle.

"This is getting really old."

Bell's "courage" comments raised quite a debate after the game among fans and media about what he really meant. Was he really calling his team a bunch of cowards? Or was he saying that they are timid about making adjustments because it means trying new techniques and they don't have a lot of experience in making such adjustments? Maybe it's the same thing?

I don't know. But I do know this…taken in context with the rest of his comments about his learning a lot about guys during this stretch, he seems to be saying that we have a number of guys who simply don't belong at this level because they lack heart and ability. If that's what he means, I don't know how anybody could disagree with him.