That was essentially your typical Gil Meche night of work, wasn't it? The maddening inability to have easy innings, to finish hitters, to avoid not hitting 100 pitches in the 5th inning, etc. And then Hillman sent in Tomko with a one-run lead, and the game was over. I still haven't figured out what the hell the Royals are trying to do with Mahay, but between last night and the Peralta disaster, it's clear that Hillman doesn't know either.
Illustrious former Brave Hiram Kyle Davies (6.24 career ERA) makes his first Major League start of the season tonight, as the Royals look to live the impossible dream, and win a game. Longtime readers of this site will know I've never really been excited about Davies, nor much of a beliver in him. Nevertheless, it took exposure to Jorge de la Rosa and Brett Tomko to make me appreciate Davies, the latter especially. We know what Tomko is, and while he's likely a better option than Southern Strong Davies, at least there's still some residual promise associated with Davies, and a 1% chance that he finally "gets it" and becomes useful. So... all hail his reappreance tonight. And just in time for the arrival of Brayan Pena too. Just when the whole ex-Brave thing was getting semi-not-true too! (For more on this, check the discussion on Pena that broke out yesterday. For the record, I still don't think Olivo is much of an option at starting catcher, much less full time DH. But when you have no good hitters, you get in situations like this. In this way the Royals are now typical of most AL teams: fielding a wholly unsatisfactory DH. Cool!)
The Indians counter with C.C. Sabathia (3-6, 4.74 ERA) who has faced the Royals 6,000 times in his career.
Ironically, I'm actually in Cleveland now...