Game 21

Game Date: April 24, 2008
Indians 9, Royals 6 / Box Score
WP: Carmona (3-1), LP: Tomko (1-3), SV: Betancourt (1) 
Royal Home Runs: DeJesus (1), Olivo (3)
Royals Record: 9-12

Bad pitching + Bad defense = another loss.

Brett Tomko pitched from behind in the count in his four brief innings and the Indians pounded him for six earned runs on eleven hits and two walks. I guess I shouldn't say brief innings. He threw 108 pitches and the game moved at a snail's pace. Fausto Carmona threw 98 pitches in the first five innings.

It was that kind of game.

The Royals got their hits. In Hillman's revamped line up, Gathright was 2-for-5 at the top of the order, DeJesus was 2-for-4 with an RBI, Butler was 1-for-5 with 2 RBI, Gordon was 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Olivo was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI.

But if you can't pitch or catch, scoring six runs is usually not going to be enough.

There were a couple of nice things to point out in this one though:

The Royals were down 7-1 in the third and it looked like they were in for another drubbing, but they forced Carmona to bring his sinker up a little and when he did, they started hitting him and clawing their way back into the game. In the seventh inning, Olivo hit a two-run home run to bring the Royals to within three runs, which is at least a puncher's chance.

As bad as Yasuhiko Yabuta has been (he gave up two more runs last night), Ramon Ramirez has been stunningly good. He pitched 2.1 innings of scoreless ball last night, lowering his ERA to 0.87.