Weird game, with a weird lineup from Hillman, but I think we'll all take it. I'm frazzled and fried right now, so this recap will be short on insight. In short, it sure seems like a huge win: there's a huge gap in how 2-4 sounds as opposed to 3-3. 2-4 is a failure, 3-3 is a stalemate.
- Meche wasn't as sharp as he was on Opening Day, and was probably left in too long by Hillman (its a tough call either way, and I had no problem with the move) but he played a major role in the victory, even if he left in line for a loss.
- John Buck went homer, single, strikeout, double, producing the first three-hit game by a Royal this year.
- Having your third catcher get a start at DH never sounds like a good idea, and it creates logistical problems as well, but Brayan's double in the eighth ended up being perhaps the key hit of the game. An utterly bizarre chain of events, but again, one that we'll take.
- The team drew two walks today, including a pinch-hit walk from Butler in the aforementioned eighth. I've seen numerous complaints about the strike zone in the game threads this season... is this really a problem?
- Juan Cruz has never allowed a run as a Royal.
- Farnsworth did not pitch.
- Jacobs had another terrible day at the plate and afield.
- Soria was Soria.
- The loss had to seem familiar to Yankees fans. The Yankees have had trouble getting the ball to Rivera the second half of this decade, and it's caused problems. I think Cashman is a good GM, but he's had difficulty building bullpens. For this reason, in fact, there's still so much sentiment to make Chamberlain the setup man.
- Your WPA leaders for the game: Callaspo .353, Buck .299, Brayan .264, Soria .078, Cruz .055. Nobody else was really positive from a WPA standpoint.