Rays Bury the Royals

The Royals offense didn't show up yesterday against the Devil Rays and Scott Elarton was in the middle of the plate all day. Devil Ray hitters took full advantage and blasted three home runs off him (and six for the game) en route to an 8-2 Devil Rays victory. Our lone highlight was a bizarre triple play in the second inning.

After the game, Bell said something that I had to read twice to make sure I read it correctly. "We are being so passive offensively," Bell is quoted as saying in an article in the Star. "We're not ready to hit early in the count. We seemed to be too concerned with working the count. That's all well and good, but in this league, you don't get a whole lot of pitches to hit. So you got to be ready the first one you see."

For a team that has drawn a pitiful amount of walks (163—which ranks the Royals at 28th out of 30 teams), I can't imagine how anybody on the entire planet could ever consider the Royals as being "too concerned with working the count"—let alone our manager who routinely sees guys swing at the first pitch.

While we're at it, let's look at the rest of the pathetic offensive team numbers…the Royals rank:

--30th in runs scored with 242
--27th in hits with 535
--30th in home runs with 45
--30th in runs batted in with 232
--21st in batting average with .260
--27th in on base percentage with .319
--26th in stolen bases with 22
--28th in bases on balls with 163

The Royals open a new series in Los Angeles tonight with the Angeles. Bobby Keppel (0-1, 2.11) goes against Ervin Santana (5-3, 4.32).