Make that 10-32.
We've come to expect awful play on the road, but getting trounced in the first 4 games of the home stand especially hurts. The bad news is that we have 3 more games against this team, a team that apparently is fairly good now.
So where do we start? The Royals managed only 5 singles and a walk, mixing in an error, a GIDP and the scene of Aaron Guiel getting picked off first. The Royals didn't get a hit until the 4th inning, and didn't get a man to scoring position until the 9th, after Verlander had thrown over 100 pitches.
Jeremy Affeldt posted whats hopefully a hiccup game on his road to being a good starting pitcher, allowing 8 ER in 6.0 IP. Affeldt was hit particularly hard, allowing doubles and singles all over the place. Luckily, Joe Nelson (who?), Andy Sisco and Joel Peralta tossed a scoreless 7-8-9, keeping the game from reaching even worse levels. Its especially nice to see Sisco throw a nice inning, as the Royals desperately need him to get back.
Royals Review Attendance Watch: 9,747
Today the Royals square off against the Satanic Kenny Rogers and his bag of old-man tricks. Rogers is customarily having his hot first half, going 7-2 with a 2.91 ERA. Lets torch this guy, who last season attacked a defenceless cameraman for no apparent reason, showed no remorse, acted like a pyschopath, taunted the media the rest of the season, then left town. Nea... lets just focus on how evil Barry Bonds is...
The Royals need more than anything to see Runelyvs Hernandez (1-3, 6.75 ERA) step up and throw a good game. Weirdly, this will be only Run's second home start of the season, his last being a 7 inning gem against the Twins en route to a 3-1 victory. Still, the Tiger lineup is clicking right now, hitting .278 as a team with a lowish OBP (.333) and one of the highest team SLGs in baseball at .472 (3rd).
Meanwhile, as Royals Corner points out, KC still has BBQ to turn to, and Kauffman Confidential shares some disturbing news about Zach/k Greinke.
And if you're jonesing for some Chiefs talk, check out The Tomahawk Blog.