Royals Win a Close One

Game Date: August 24, 2007
Royals 2, Indians 1 / Box Score
WP: Bale (1-1), LP: Sabathia (14-7), SV: Soria (14)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 57-70

The Royals won a low scoring one-run game with Zack Greinke starting for the first time since early in the season. The evil Yankees lost on a walk-off home run in Detroit at 3:30 AM. Boston won both games of a double-header to expand their lead to 6.5 games over the evil-Yankees in the East. The evil Yankees also find themselves in a bit of controversy since a new Era cap bearing their insignia also contains gang-related logos and colors. How funny is that? Mike Sweeney may be wearing Royal blue again next year. Billy Buckner is set to make his debut soon. And yes, everything seems right with the world.

Alright, that might be a bit of a stretch. But not by much.

As Joe Posnanski pointed out in his column this morning, the Royals are 18-16 in one-run games this year. They have two potential rookie of the year candidates in Brian Bannister and Joakim Soria. And they've been playing .500 ball for the last three months. Not bad for a team that was the butt of jokes just one season ago.

Zack Greinke looked dominant last night, giving up just one hit in three innings. Unfortunately, he was on a 50-pitch limit, so he didn't get to go back out for the fourth inning. John Bale pitched well in relief, giving up just two hits in three innings, and striking out five. Jimmy Gobble gave up a run, but still has a 3.48 ERA. Joel Peralta gave up a hit in a third of an inning, but his ERA is 3.89. David Riske pitched one scoreless inning to lower his ERA to 2.48. And Joakim Soria closed the door on the Indians and lowered his ERA to 2.44. Look at those ERAs again. It's hard to believe how good the bullpen has been this season.

Billy Butler, hitting in the five hole, was 2-for-4. Emil Brown was 1-for-4 with an RBI. And Esteban German hit what turned out to be the game-winning sacrifice fly to center field in the fifth to score Tony Pena. Joey Gathright was 0-for-2 but he's still hitting .353. If he had enough at bats (he's far short with 139--he'd need at least 394 at this stage of the season), he'd be in third place for the AL batting title, and just one point behind Ichiro Suzuki for second.

Tonight, Kyle Davies (1-2, 5.03) will go up against Aaron Laffey (1-1, 5.73). Davies is 0-1 in his career against the Indians with a 5.06 ERA. Laffey has never faced the Royals.