Royals Struggle Against Clemens

Game Date: July 23, 2007
Yankees 9, Royals 2 / Box Score
WP: Clemens (3-4), LP: Perez (5-9)
Royal Home Runs: Gload (3)
Royals Record: 43-55

Fresh from a winning road trip, the Royals came home to 30,000+ fans and battled to stay in the game, even after falling behind 4-0 in the second inning. But the wheels came off in the ninth when the evil Yankees scored five runs. The Royals made three errors. Tony Pena made a throwing error. Emil Brown made a throwing error. And Mark Grudzielanek dropped a pop up.

It looked like Odalis Perez was going to have to make another early exit. He gave up four runs in the first two innings, but then he settled down and kept the Royals in the game. He wasn't good, or even good enough, but he was better than I thought he would be tonight.

Clemens, on the other hand, was more than good enough, giving up just two earned runs in seven innings, but the Royals gave him some help. So did the umpires. At one point in the middle innings, Perez was getting squeezed by home plate umpire Doug Eddings. After giving Jorge Posada a forth and maybe even a fifth strike, he singled. None of that really mattered though since the evil Yankees scored five runs in the ninth.

Now we have to hope that Scott Elarton (2-3, 9.17) is better than he's been all season when he takes the ball tomorrow night. He's been awful so far. He'll go up against Chien-Ming Wang (10-5, 3.44). Elarton is 3-0 in his career against the evil Yankees with a 4.85 ERA. Wang is 1-0 against the Royals with a 5.79 ERA.