Bullpen Fails Again, and Again

Game Two:

Game Date: August 12, 2006
Game Score: Indians 6, Royals 5 / Box Score
WP: Sikorski (1-0), LP: Gobble (3-4)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 41-76

Jorge De La Rosa struggled in game two, but he found a way to stay on the mound for six innings without giving up too many runs—which is a good thing considering how overworked our bullpen is right now. De La Rosa gave up 4 ER in 6.0 innings. He walked three and struck out six.

The game was tied 4-4 going into the eighth inning. The Royals scored a run in the top of the inning, but Gobble gave the lead right back to the Indians when he gave up a home run to Grady Sizemore and then, after an error by Grudzielanek, gave up a double to Travis Hafner.

I’m not even sure it is possible to be positive after losing three straight one-run games the way the Royals have, but David DeJesus walked four times in this game, Mark Teahen was 1-for-3 with 2 walks (making him 4-for-7 for the day), and Ryan Shealy was 3-for-5 with 4 RBI.

But in the end, it was yet another game in which our bullpen failed us, which doesn’t surprise me. We’re working these guys to death since our starting staff rarely even makes it into the seventh inning of a game. And let’s be honest, we don’t really have anybody who can close games out.

I’ve said enough about Burgos recently. But Sisco clearly isn’t ready. Gobble is struggling. Dohmann has some nasty stuff, but his rather inflated ERA resembles Burgos’. Todd Wellemeyer has a decent ERA (3.34), but he’s walked more guys (20) than he’s struck out (17). The Royals aren’t even convinced that Joel Peralta belongs in the big leagues. And that leaves us with Joe Nelson, who has a 3.00 ERA. He has an impressive 22 strikeouts in 25 innings, but he’s also walked 12 guys.

So Bell doesn’t have a lot of options right now.

The Royals will try to salvage what’s left of a horrible weekend when they send Luke Hudson (5-3, 4.65) against Jeremy Sowers (3-3, 3.93) this afternoon.

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Game One:

Game Date: August 12, 2006
Game Score: Indians 5, Royals 4 / Box Score
WP: Betancourt (1-4), LP: Nelson (0-1)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 41-75

The Royals came from behind to score three runs in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game 4-4, but in the end, a walk in the ninth inning did us in—again (this time by Joe Nelson). The Indians played small ball to score the winning run in walk off fashion—capping the rally off with a single by Travis Hafner.

Odalis Perez had a good line to start the game: 2 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 6 K in 6.0 IP. But Andrew Sisco gave up two runs in the eighth inning without recording an out to spoil Perez’s effort.