Late last night, I stupidily lost a game-post after closing the window too early. The feeling was so traumatic that I ended up sleeping in, and wasn't fully functional before I noticed that the Royals were already playing baseball in the Motor City. All in all, a nice Sunday win today, as its always a huge difference between splitting a 4-gamer and losing 3 of 4. Plus, we got to witness a fairly typical bean-brawl, complete with an epic Farnsworth-Affeldt battle before Affeldt would even appear in the game.
To say the least, it was a strange day. Its a little scary to see Tony Graffanino as your starting first baseman, but he's still an improvement in the 2-hole over noted out machines like Gotay and Berroa. Hell, even throwing Super Joe into the 9-hole and letting him rot there is better than killing rallies before they begin at the top of the lineup. True to form, McEwing is of course hittnig 9th because he isn't fast enough, and McEwing followed suit with a caught stealing to prove his uselessness.
Offensively, the Royals had a functional day, drawing only 2 walks, but producing 2 early homers from Sweeney and Teahen and a double from DeJesus. Brawl or not, however, the big story is the solid outing of Runelvys Hernandez who allowed only 2 hits and a walk in 5IP. Once again, the strikeouts weren't there, which worries the rationalist in me. But I'm fully convinced that the Royals are, however stupidly, employing some kind of pitch-to-contact strategy thats at least keeping walks down.
This has to be a tough loss for the Tigers, who only last week were being talked about as a potentially interesting second-half team. Splitting with the Royals, at home, isn't cool however, especially when you're already miles behind the second-place Twins.