Royals Down Pirates 10-6

Mark Redman was up in the zone early last night and Pirate hitters made him pay by scoring four runs in the first inning. He really never looked sharp, but he found a way to stop the bleeding and he exited the game after five innings with the Royals up 8-5, picking up his fourth win in his last four starts.

Royal hitters had no problems with Kip Wells last night in their 10-6 victory. They got six runs off him in 3.1 IP, and they worked him for five of the eleven walks the Royals had on the night (Angel Berroa was the only Royal without a walk—big surprise, huh?). The nice thing about the victory last night was, the Royals didn't need the long ball to come back and they didn't need to string a lot of hits together. They just took what was given to them—walks, errors, wild pitches, and passed balls—and turned them into a ten spot. Nice work.

Joe Randa got a nice ovation from the Royal-faithful. Some even gave him a standing ovation when he was announced for his first at bat. That was nice to see.

"Kansas City is very similar to the town I grew up in," Randa said. "My wife and I felt people treated us the way we needed to be treated, and that was really No. 1."

One of Randa's sons, Jacob, wore a Royals jersey at the game last night and his other son, Justin, wore a Pirates jersey. I guess that tells us all we need to know about what the Randa family still thinks of Kansas City. They live in the Leawood area.

The Royals have won three of their last four games and if they win tonight, they might actually be considered hot by anybody's definition. But let's not get too crazy. The Pirates are a bad team (they've lost six games in a row and they have the second worst record in baseball—behind the Royals, of course). Instead, let's be happy that we are playing them right now.

Tonight, the Royals send Mike Wood (3-2, 4.69) against Ian Snell (7-4, 4.71).

Berroa Walk Watch (the quest for double digits): 4 walks in 65 games.