Mays Rocked Again

Joe Mays had another miserable outing (4 ER in 2.2 IP)—the worst of which was the five walks he gave up. His sinker didn't sink and even when it did, he couldn't spot it. The last place a pitcher like Mays should ever throw a pitch to Jason Giambi is low and inside, and of course, that's exactly where his 0-2 pitch strayed in the first inning even though Buck was set up outside. Giambi didn't miss it and the evil Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead on his home run.

After getting through the second inning unscathed, Mays walked four guys in the third inning. Thankfully, Mike Wood came in and stopped the bleeding. If Bell would have left Mays in the game he would have given up double digits. This was only Mays' second start, but he just doesn't appear to have able to locate his pitches like he used to pre-Tommy John surgery days. And an 86 mph fastball that isn't located well ends up in the fountains.

Mike Wood has replaced Runelvys Hernandez in the rotation (after his disaster in Omaha a couple of days ago) for now. With Howell and Snyder both pitching well their first time through the rotation in Omaha, I guess we have a couple of other options if Mays continues to pitch so poorly, but neither of those guys are number two types. Our rotation is in big trouble, but we've known that for a while now.

Offensively, we're doing okay. We scored three runs this afternoon in the third inning to tie the score at 4-4. Sanders hit a solo home run. Brown doubled. Teahen had a nice 6-pitch walk. Berroa swung at the first pitch (imagine that) and singled. Then Buck singled. After the Royals broke the tie in the sixth inning, it looked like we might win this one. When we scored two more runs in the seventh inning (a Shane Costa home run and an RBI single from Sanders), we had a 7-4 read going into the 8th—with Sisco coming in. He got rocked, and so did Burgos, who followed him. Burgos gave up the game-winning home run to Jeter.

Tomorrow, we'll try again. We're sending Jeremy Affeldt (0-0, 13.50 ERA) against Shawn Chacon (0-1, 7.71 ERA).

Angel Berroa finally drew a walk today, so the initial Berroa Walk Watch ends. But a new one will start soon. This time we'll be counting the number of games it takes Berroa to hit double figures in walks.