Royals Pound the Jays

Game Date: July 7, 2006
Game Score: Royals 13, Blue Jays 3 / Box Score
WP: Hudson (2), LP: Burnett (3)
Royal Home Runs: Stairs (8), Teahen (8)
Royals Record: 31-54

By anybody’s definition, the Royals are on fire. Their 13-3 blowout win over the Blue Jays tonight was their thirteenth out of the last eighteen games. It was also their fourth straight win. With Luke Hudson on the mound, I didn’t have high expectations, but he pitched extremely well—giving up only one run on two hits in five innings. And he only threw 72 pitches. I don’t know if he’s the answer for the fifth spot in the rotation over the long haul, but we’ll take the win tonight.

David DeJesus was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Doug Mientkiewicz was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Matt Stairs and Tony Graffanino were 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. I’m wondering if anybody else is enjoying Graffanino’s play at shortstop in recent games as much as I am. He deserves to be in the line up and frankly, I’d rather see him at short than Angel Berroa.

The Royals made more productive outs tonight and they took advantage of three errors by the Blue Jays. At this point, I wish the All-Star break wasn’t so close. I’d like to see how long we could continue playing like this. We’ll start the second half of the season in Detroit, but for now, we need to stay focused on the remaining two games in the Blue Jay series. One more win means that we will have won six of the last seven series.

Tomorrow night, Scott Elarton (3-9, 5.13) goes against Ted Lilly (8-8, 3.82). Elarton is 0-0 with a 4.76 ERA against the Blue Jays in his career and Lilly is 0-1 with a 5.24 ERA against the Royals.