A Messy Loss for the Royals

Game Date: June 7, 2007
Indians 8, Royals 3 / Box Score
WP: Carmona (7-1), LP: Perez (3-6)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 22-39

Odalis Perez pitched out of trouble for the first three innings, but it finally caught up with him in the fourth when he walked the lead off guy, who eventually came around to score the Indians first run. Then he gave up a solo home run to the latest Royal-killer Franklin Gutierrez, the Indians .235, number nine hitter who has three home runs in his career--all against us.

The Royals had a hard time getting anything going against Fausto Carmona. Here's a guy who wasn't even supposed to be in the Indians rotation, but two injuries later, he's not only in their rotation, but he's probably their best starting pitcher. We were able to stay close through seven innings against him though. We were trailing 3-1 at that point, but then the wheels came off.

Brandon Duckworth walked Jhonny Peralta to lead off the eighth. Then Tony Pena, in Angel Berroa-like fashion, had a slow roller go right through his legs. A sacrifice bunt later, Zack Greinke gave up a hit to Josh Barfield to make it 4-1 Cleveland. Greinke uncorked a wild pitch which sent Ryan Garko (who reached on the error) to third. Royal-killer walked. Grady Sizemore doubled to make it 6-1 Cleveland. And just for good measure Casey Blaze hit a two-run home run to make it 8-1.

The Royals got a little something going in the top of the ninth--capped off by a two-run single by Joey Gathright, but you have to wonder what might have happened if Pena had fielded the ball in the eighth, and maybe even turned two. It was hit pretty slowly, so it's hard to say what would have happened, but it would be nice if we wouldn't have kicked our own door down for the opposition.

Believe it or not, we did have a couple of things to be cheer about. Alex Gordon had hit first four-hit game of this career and he looked completely dialed in all day. I was most impressed with his first at bat when he drove a high four-seamer from Carmona into the right-center field gap.

The other thing that was nice to see was Joey Gathright's contributions. Splittorff said that the Royals have revamped Gathright's swing. He's hitting more balls on the ground, but they haven't necessarily made him into a slap hitter. That appeared to be true yesterday. He drove a ball back up the middle in the seventh inning for a single. He also stole a base, which is something the Royals haven't done much of this year.

The Royals open a new series tonight at home against the Phillies. Scott Elarton (1-2, 7.36) will go against Freddy Garcia (1-4, 5.11). Elarton is 1-1 against the Phillies in his career with a 7.13 ERA. Garcia is 8-9 against the Royals with a 5.66 ERA.