Elarton's Effort for Naught

Scott Elarton pitched shutout ball for seven innings last night, working his way out of a difficult jam in the seventh inning, only to see the bullpen blow the game. But first, regarding Elarton—the guy looked masterful. He only walked one guy, while allowing just three hits. His command was dead on, but I was most impressed with his curveball. He threw it for called strikes and he kept it down, so that when Twinkie players took a rip at one, they weren't able to do much with it.

Now for the bullpen. You'd think that the set up guy (Sisco) would automatically get the call in a one-run game going into the eighth inning. But for some reason, Bell turned to Luke Hudson, who gave up three successive singles to Ford, Sierra, and Stewart in just seven pitches. I'm guessing that Twinkie hitters had no problem seeing Hudson's stuff. Throw in passed ball, a throw on a sacrifice fly from Emil Brown from short left field that bounced at least four times, and later an error by Mark Teahen, and that spells a 2-1 loss—as well it should.

In addition to struggling defensively, the Royals couldn't score against Kyle Lohse who had an ERA over 11.00 coming into the game. They got on base—but couldn't do anything about it. In fact, the Royals left 27 guys on base. Reggie Sanders was responsible for eight of them. You just can't expect to win when you do things like that.

Tonight, Runelvys Hernandez will make his first start of the season after proving very little in Omaha (1-2, 10.67). The Royals point to his "poor location" as his culprit while in the minors. Isn't that pretty important in the major leagues as well? Isn't it more important? And while the Royals claim that Hernandez is back on track physically, he has a long way to go to make amends with teammates. Wood and Sisco have voiced their displeasure with him. And he's refusing to talk to reporters. That's not going to make for a good mix if he gets shelled again tonight.

The Twinkies are sending Scott Baker (1-1, 3.31) to the mound against Hernandez. This going to be a tough one to watch.