Royals Pound Cardinals Pitching

Game Date: June 14, 2007
Royals 17, Cardinals 8 / Box Score
WP: Greinke (4-4), LP: Wells (2-11)
Royal Home Runs: Gordon (5)
Royals Record: 26-41

An eight run second inning--are you kidding me? The Cardinals have to be second-guessing themselves for not resigning some of their starting pitchers from last season. If you look at their starting staff right now, Brandon Looper is having the best season with a 6-5 record and a 4.12 ERA. Brad Thompson is struggling (obviously). Kip Wells is beyond struggling. Adam Wainwright has been decent. But things are so bad that Todd Wellemeyer is listed as their number three starter. Yikes.

The Royals pounded Cardinals pitching last night for 15 hits and they drew seven walks. Mark Teahen was 3-for-5 with 5 RBI, including two triples--one to left field and one to right. Emil Brown was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Alex Gordon hit another blast to right field that easily cleared the fence for his fifth home run and he saw his average climb over the .200 mark for the first time in his major league career. Tony Pena wasn't swinging out of his shoes and he was 4-for-5 with an RBI. And Joey Gathright, who was 0-for-2, walked three times and scored three runs.

Ryan Shealy, while he continues to struggle at the plate, made several nice picks in the field. The Cardinals, on the other hand, looked off defensively. Scott Rolen is looking incredibly slow. So slow that Paul Splittorff speculated that something must be wrong with him. And Adam Kennedy was far from graceful in his attempts to field ground balls.

A few notes about the Royals roster:

Brandon Duckworth has a torn left oblique...so he'll probably be out for quite a while, which is too bad. He's having a good season. Neal Musser was called up to take Duckworth's spot. Musser has been putting up good numbers in Omaha. In fact, he's 2-1 with a 0.00 ERA in 17 appearances (31 innings of work) with a 0.84 WHIP. He hasn't been nearly that good in his earlier stints in KC this season (0-0, 9.39 ERA in 7.2 innings), but let's hope he's figured something out in Omaha.

Mark Grudzielanek has a torn meniscus in his left knee. He's scheduled for surgery today. He'll certainly be out for a while. It's the same knee he had operated on in the spring. Esteban German will take over second base. The Royals needed a utility guy to fill German's spot, so they called up Fernando Cortez who is said to be able to play multiple positions. He was hitting .299 in Omaha with 3 HR and 19 RBI. His OBP was .355 and his SLG was .402. I was expecting Angel Berroa to get the call up, so I was quite happy when I heard that it was Cortez instead.

Mike Sweeney is said to have a sore back, but it's not bad enough that he can't play. Bell chose to keep him out of the line up last night for precautionary reasons.

And finally, the Royals got a little recognition from Tim Brown on his blog over at Yahoo! Sports for playing .500 ball over the last month.

Tonight, the Royals begin a new series at home against the Marlins. Gil Meche (3-6, 3.16) goes against Sergio Mitre (2-2, 1.59). Meche is 0-1 in his career against Florida with a 7.20 ERA (in four innings of work). Mitre has never faced the Royals.