Game 137: Oakland @ Kansas City

Game Date: September 2, 2008
Royals 5, A's 2 / Box Score
WP: Greinke (10-9), LP: Gonzalez (1-3), SV: Soria (34)
Royal Home Runs: Butler (10), Shealy (1)
Royals Record: 58-79

Where has this version of Billy Butler been all season? We could have used him before the numerous losing streaks started. Yesterday he was 3-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBI. And he's raising his average to respectability. Butler's three-run shot in the first inning gave Zack Greinke all the cushion he needed.

Greinke pitched seven strong innings, giving up just two earned runs on six hits. He struck out eight. The win gave Greinke his tenth of the season. Can you guess the last time the Royals have had two ten-game winners in one season (Gil Meche also has ten wins this season)? Jeff Suppan and Jose Rosado did it in 1999. Wow.

The Royals brought up six players for September callups: Ryan Shealy, Kila Ka'aihue, Devon Lowery, Yasuhiko Yabuta, Jimmy Gobble, and John Bale. Technically Gobble and Bale were activated from injury rehab assignments while the other four were true callups.

Shealy made his presence felt right away when he blasted a home run to right field in the fourth inning.

This was Mike Sweeney's first trip back to Kauffman Stadium since joining the A's. He faces more knee surgery this off season and he isn't sure if he'll play next year or not, so he said he really wanted to make this trip to Kansas City, even though he's been out of action for a long time. Here are a couple of quotes from him from a couple of different sources:

"It’ll be an interesting off-season, to say the least,” he said. “Right now, I’m just happy to be playing again. I was in the minors on a rehab assignment and I felt pretty good. I’m hoping to be activated for this series because I had these three dates in Kansas City circled all season."

"I told my agents I really wanted to come back to Kansas City and the way the last few weeks have gone, I really thought about getting the surgery done and just getting ready for next year," he said. "But I still had that date circled on my calendar to come back to KC and I really wanted to make this trip and thank God I'm here."

There's a chance Sweeney will be activated for the game tonight. If he is, I hope that the Royal faithful will give him a long, standing ovation. Here's what he said about the possibility of playing in Kansas City tonight:

"If I got to play in tomorrow night's game and I blew out my knee and never got to play again, I'd retire a happy man," he said.

Tonight, Brian Bannister (7-14, 5.75) will go up against Dana Eveland (8-8, 4.21). Bannister is 1-1 in his career against the A's with a 3.96 ERA in 25.0 IP. Eveland is 1-0 against the Royals with a 1.59 ERA in 5.2 IP.