Royals Let One Slip Away

Who would have thought that it would be possible to lose a heartbreaker to the Devil Rays? But obviously it is possible and we just pulled it off. After pitching a gem through six innings, and with the Royals up 2-0 going into the seventh, Elarton looked to be on cruise control.

Then he walked Ty Wigginton on six pitches. After recording an out, Tomas Perez put down a decent bunt on the third base side that was intended to advance the runner and for some reason Elarton hurdled the ball and made the barehanded play for Teahen almost impossible. Perez beat out Teahen's throw. When Elarton walked the number nine hitter, Joey Gathright, he was clearly overthrowing the ball because he was out of gas. He probably should have been taken out of the game after Perez's bunt single, but that's easy to say now.

Dessens came in and got force at home for the second out, but the bags were full. Jorge Cantu hit a ball to deep center field and Costa took a bad route to the ball and looked like a ballet dancer as he jumped too early and missed the ball entirely. All three runs scored. That's all the Rays needed, but just for good measure, they added a four spot in the eighth inning to put the game out of reach. They went on to win 7-2.

The argument for keeping Costa instead of Guiel was that Costa was younger. We were assured that Costa could play center, but after seeing the fiasco in Yankee Stadium and now this one, he's not even close to being a major league center fielder. Aaron Guiel would have made both of those catches. And the outcomes might have been different. Even if they weren't, we would have still been in both games. We've got to have somebody on the roster who can back up DeJesus. And right now, the only guy who fits that role is Aaron Guiel. Hopefully Guiel and Costa trade places in the next day or two.

Mike Wood (0-1, 8.31) gets his first start of the year tomorrow against Seth McClung (0-2, 13.50). We're already sinking in the standings (we're 2-7 after tonight). We need Wood to step up big tomorrow night.