Teahen Carries Royals

Game Date: July 25, 2006
Game Score: Royals 7, Orioles 5 / Box Score
WP: Redman (7-5), LP: Birkins (5-2), SV: Burgos (15)
Royal Home Runs: Teahen (10, 11)
Royals Record: 35-64

I wonder if this will be the game that all of us look back on and say that it was Mark Teahen’s coming out party. We’ve seen Mark Teahen the slap hitter (for most of 2005). We’ve seen Mark Teahen the pull hitter (the tail end of 2005 and portions of this season). Now we’ve seen the Mark Teahen who can hit the other way with power. He hit two home runs last night—one to right field and one to left field. And later he produced a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh. Three impressive at bats and all three speak volumes about the ballplayer that he’s becoming. I’d like to see him improve defensively (he’s currently ranked 19th among MLB third basemen with a .952 fielding percentage), but for now, you’ve got to be happy with the way he’s playing.

This game looked like it was going to be a clinic in bad baseball. Shane Costa misplayed a ball and picked up an error in right field. David DeJesus just flat dropped a ball in left field. And Mark Redman picked up the third Royal error of the first inning when he couldn’t field a ball hit back to the mound. But the nice thing about veterans is, they are always thinking about stopping the bleeding when something like this happens because they know that comebacks are possible if the damage is minimized. That’s exactly what Mark Redman was thinking on the mound.

“You try to stop the bleeding in that situation,” Redman said. “You try to keep it as close as possible. Then it feeds off itself.”

That’s exactly what happened. Redman settled down, and reminiscent of the days when another Royals’ third basemen picked up the Royals and carried them to the finish line, Mark Teahen drove in five runs—giving the Royals a chance to win the game. Shane Costa’s one out RBI double in the seventh gave the Royals a 6-5 lead and Angel Berroa dropped down an RBI bunt single that scored Costa (who had taken third on an error) from third.

I need to say something about Angel Berroa. Last night, in addition to dropping down the bunt that scored Costa, Berroa also took a four-pitch walk. Neither instance resembles the Berroa we’ve seen since he came over to the Royals from the A’s. I have no idea what’s going on, but he’s more patient right now than I’ve ever seen him. And he almost seems willing to give up his long, hard, ridiculous looking swing for the sake of the team. Although the jury is still out on that one. For now, I’m just glad to seeing him playing the game the right way.

Tonight, Jimmy Gobble (3-3, 4.88) goes against Adam Loewen (0-2, 7.09).