Gosh this was a slog tonight. Only a patch of drama in the ninth prevented it from being the dullest 4-0 game of all-time. Said patch also made it 4-2. I was really looking forward to the game, especially because, ironically enough, my wife and her family (who visit tomorrow) are from Cleveland. Gonna make my father in-law's usual question of "how are the Royals doing?" that much more tense. On top of that, Cleveland's a fascinating team, and a division rival, that seems to nosedive from time to time or year to year for no apparent reason.
The Royals snagged an early lead... and then there was just two hours of long at bats but not much more from both teams. When I skipped over to 7-11 around the fourth to grab a soda, I was bummed further, when I discovered that I couldn't pick up the game on the radio because of a Cavs game. (I can get Cleveland AM at night very cleanly.)
Oh well, I'm sure you've all loved my boring personal stories.
- Greinke was weirdly ineffective, yet never really in serious trouble. (Well, he did load the bases against the heart of the Cleveland order, but it never felt in doubt.) Two or three years ago, he hangs a couple pitches and doesn't strike out as many guys, and allows four earned runs in the process. Didn't happen tonight.
- With the bases loaded and still no outs, the Indians trailed 4-2. From that point forward Soria struck out Victor Martinez (who was good once), got a weak groundout from Travis Hafner, and struck out Peralta to end the game. Sick.
- Jacobs made good on his epic foul ball yesterday with a homer tonight. He's one of five proud Royals now batting over .200... err... over .199. Then he made us all proud by conducting his post-game interview with a cheek full of chaw. He may be a flawed player with a ridiculous goatee and questionable manners, but he's ours. Ours.
- Its interesting that the same day that NYRoyal talked about using Wright more as a long-man, he pitched two critical innings in the middle of the game, building a bridge to, you got it, our man Farnsworth. Your Farnsworth ERA update: 9.00.
- Watching Olivo and TPJ hit back to back is fun.
- Callaspo is hitting... (wait for it) the ball hard.
- Completely random quote from Gibbon's Decline and Fall to balance out the page: A being of the nature of man, endowed with the same faculties, but with a longer measure of existence, would cast down a smile of pity and contempt on the crimes and follies of human ambition, so eager, in a narrow span, to grasp at a precarious and short-lived enjoyment. It is thus that the experience of history exalts and enlarges the horizon of our intellectual view. In a composition of some days, in a perusal of some hours, six hundred years have rolled away, and the duration of a life or reign is contracted to a fleeting moment: The grave is ever beside the throne; the success of a criminal is almost instantly followed by the loss of his prize; and our immortal reason survives and disdains the sixty phantoms of kings who have passed before our eyes, and faintly dwell in our remembrance. (Chapter 48)