Royals Win Second Straight

The Royals roared back for a second straight victory over Chicago, earning an unexpected series split. There was a stretch during the early part of the game where both teams constantly had baserunners. For whatever reason, the Royals emerged out of that stretch well ahead, thanks to a number of well-placed singles. Olivo iced the game, and then suddenly nothing happened for like the next hour.

• Maybe the biggest play of the game was a Jermaine Dye homer in the eighth, which allowed Soria to pick up a heroic 3-run save on a Sunday afternoon. You can't underestimate the roto impact this likely had.
• Another homer for Miguel Olivo. Trade him now. Now.
• St. Willie had a seeing eye 25-hopper to drive in a run with two outs. I'll tell my grandchildren about it.
• It was an odd, but effective start for Banny. To this untrained eye, it looked like Bannister was a combination of a tad lucky -- Sox had a lot of hard hit outs -- and effectively wild. For awhile, it seemed as if every third pitch was in the dirt. I don't know if this was a product of throwing so many off-speed pitches, or something else. It worked. He was at 70 pitches in the fourth inning, but he had his best innings late, and put the Royals in a reasonable position to win. Well done, Banny.
• Hawk Harrelson, while discussing check swings, made reference to, I think, Carl Furillo. Furillo played from 1946-1960. So all in all, you can say it was a helpful reference... for any eighty year old with perfect memory who happened to be watching.