Oh, for a Stopper

Game Date: May 29, 2007
Orioles 6, Royals 2 / Box Score
WP: Guthrie (3-1), LP: De La Rosa (4-5)
Royal Home Runs: Teahen (5)
Royals Record: 19-34

Well, at least we weren't blown out early.

Yeah, that doesn't bring me any consolation either.

Royals hitters held a team meeting before the game last night, presumably to talk about working the count, moving runners, going with the pitch, and all of the other things that major league hitters should inherently know, but sometimes forget.

Buddy Bell "shook up" the line up hoping it would generate a little more offense. He moved David DeJesus to the five hole and Shane Costa hit lead off. He finally moved up John Buck to the six hole, but he waited until he cooled down to do so (he's 4-for-his-last-20). And Bell gave Pena the day off, allowing Angel Berroa to start at short. Why can't we just give up on this guy?

Neither the team meeting nor the shake up in the line up did any good. Royals hitters ended up with just three hits for the entire evening with one walk.

At least we didn't have to hear Bell telling us how great Jeremy Guthrie is. He's having a good year, but let's be honest, if we can't hit Guthrie right now, who are we going to hit?

And what has happened to our starting pitching staff? Jorge De La Rosa was awful, giving up eight hits, five earned runs, three walks, and a home run in just five innings. He was seen slamming things into a trash can afterward.

Gil Meche (3-3, 3.18) gets to play the role of stopper tonight. He'll go up against Erik Bedard (3-3, 4.10). Meche is 4-2 against the Orioles in his career with a 3.07 ERA. Bedard is 2-1 against the Royals with a 3.09 ERA.