Game 11 Open Thread - Royals (3-7) at Orioles (4-6)

With the man himself physically and mentally exhausted from rooting against Paul Bako for ten innings last night, the responsibility for tonight's Open Thread falls onto the uneven shoulders (damn you, scholiosis) of your resident stathead. Tonight's extravaganza of bats and arms in the city of charms is a humdinger of a match-up between Erik Bedard (1-1, 6.94 ERA) and Brandon Duckworth (0-0, 0.00 ERA) that kicks off in the palace of spheroid slingin' known as Camden Yards at 7:05 PM EST, 6:05 Central.

Among the intrigue surrounding this match-up is the ever-present question of exactly what the hell the Royals have in Duckworth. Our boy Ducky shut down the Tigers for six-plus the other night before David Riske blew his chance of ever being Duckworth's best friend by allowing a three-run shot to the overrated Rodriguez. Nevertheless, Duckworth had a nice outing as he did not allow a run. The DIPS theory says he was probably a bit lucky, as he only K'ed two batters, but we're happy wondering for now. Hang on, Ducky, Ducky hang on.

Last year the man Camden Chat calls "BUH-DARD" was a knight without...um...rotation mates in a savage land, posting a 3.76 ERA while facing AL East line-ups a good deal of the time. He's probably one of least-hyped great pitchers in the game, as he's got three pitches he can throw for strikes most nights; plus fastball, a fluttering change-up, and a sweet breaking ball. Bedard was roughed up by the Twinkies on openday day and surrendered three runs to the Yankees in the first inning, but he settled down in the Yankees game to keep the Bronx Bomber line-up scoreless over the ensuing six innings to get the win. It's tempting to hand credit to Leo Mazzone for Bedard's break-out season last year, but the fact is Bedard is the only member of the Oriole rotation who's not a project or an old fart (in all fairness to Leo, Cabrera, who starts tomorrow, has looked good thus far. As has Loewen).

The Orioles and Royals are having similar problems this year, in that they both have some guys in the middle of the line-up who haven't hit anything, much less a baseball, over the first ten games. Aubrey Huff went 0-for-5 and left nine runners on last night. Right now, I'd hazard a guess that they're also missing Razor Ramon Hernandez behind the plate as well.

As for the Royals, it's about damn time Shealy, Gordon, or Sweeney has a big game. That's right, Royals 4-5-6 hitters, I'm calling you out. I don't expect 5-for-5 from alla yas, but could someone hit a godsdamn home run? With someone on, possibly? That'd be great.

This is too long-winded. I apologize. I'm just hanging out, still carless, waiting to head home for April Break. Hurry up, Dad.

Go Blue!

Chicken Soup for the Royals fans' souls: did you see what happened to the Cubs today? Blew a 5-0 lead to the Reds and lost 6-5, with a self-destruction by Zambrano, two bases-loaded walks by Ohman, and Sweet Lou blowing a gasket in the press conference all in the mix.