Everything is great tonight. The Royals are undefeated, they're averaging over over 41,000 fans per game at the K. Gil Meche is the next Chris Carpenter and Tony Pena Jr is making us all forget about Angel Berroa.
On a personal note, I finished a major project that I've been working on for months, dropping it off at the copy shop to be bound about 5 minutes before the game started. Perfect timing.
*Gil Meche: 7.1 IP, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts, 5 singles and a double allowed. A wonderful recovery after a pretty rough first inning that evoked memories of the Scott Elarton era. Despite the laborious pace, Meche was crisp and made a good Red Sox lineup look pretty pedestrian. Thanks to some baserunning errors by the Sawks, in the stretch from the 2nd through the 6th, only one batter over the minimum came to the plate. Meche only had a few games this good last season, the most recent a tough-luck 2-1 loss to the Devil Rays back in September. More than anything, I'm encouraged by the strikeouts.
*Joel Peralta: Is it "Joel" or "Jo-el"? I never seem to know. Peralta was a revelation, shutting down a Red Sox rally in the 8th with back to back strikeouts of Youk and Ortiz. K's of Manny and Wily Mo in the 9th were just gravy.
*Tony Pena Jr.: Can you say co-team leader in walks drawn? What about league leader in triples? With those two three-baggers, he's going to be near the top of the AL Leaderboard for the next month. When will he draw his second walk? That is the question.
*John Buck: I need to ask Loyal2 about this, but does not John Buck look completely different with the long hair? Seeing him at the plate, he actually looked athletic and like... well, I can't quite think of who he reminds me of, but I think it was a good decision. Especially since he managed a homer and a double.