Game 105: Tampa Bay @ Kansas City

Game Date: July 26, 2008
Rays 5, Royals 3 / Box Score
WP: Reyes (2-2), LP: Ramirez (1-1), Percival (22)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 46-59

More mistakes, another loss. I could end this post there, but you're not here for such brevity. So let's look at the mistakes.

The game was tied in the eighth inning when B.J. Upton hit a pop up to short right field. Mark Grudzielanek gave it a good effort but he couldn't get to the ball. Jose Guillen seemed to be jogging toward the ball and not giving Grud a whole lot of help. The ball dropped in, the Rays ended up scoring two runs later in the inning and all you have to do is look at the final score to see how important that play was. After the game, Guillen said that he aggravated his groin during his at bat in the fifth inning and that he should have taken himself out of the game at that point.

You think?

During that same inning, Esteban German was playing left field (why does Hillman keep putting him out there?) when Carl Crawford hit a ball down the line and German couldn't make the catch, even though he should have. Later in that at bat, Crawford tripled in the aforementioned two runs.

Luke Hochevar had a good outing—unfortunately it was cut short because of a rain delay. He gave up two earned runs in five innings on 78 pitches. Unfortunately, the defense just couldn't make the plays when they need to if they were going to hold up the bullpen. Of course, it would be nice if the offense could score more than three runs, but even with their continued struggles, we had a shot to win this one.

This afternoon, Kyle Davies (3-2, 4.58) will go up against Andy Sonnanstine (10-5, 4.54). Davies has never faced the Rays. Sonnanstine is 1-0 in his career against the Royals with a 1.93 ERA in 14.0 IP.