This summer just wouldn't have been as fun without Cleveland around, would it?
Well, as they always say, when you have a chance to save the season of the pre-season favorite in your division, even with your two best pitchers set to start, you have to do it, right? You have to.
When you stop to think about it, aside from the ninth inning from the series opener, the Royals didn't play well much at all. The last two games have, in general, been incredibly poorly played, by both teams really.
I know there's quite a lot of anger directed at the bullpen right now, and rightfully so. Still, and not just because we're in the post-George-Brett-meltdown era, I'm hesitant to lay too much of the blame at Hillman's feet for this one. Greinke was slightly off early, and coupled with a few fluky singles and a generally patient Tribe, was at 103 pitches after six. It's debateable as to whether or not ZG should have gone out for the seventh inning, but even if he does sneak in that extra inning, would it have mattered? The Royals would still have had to get through two innings, and at the moment, out of the Ho-Ram-Farnsy-Ponson-Tejeda-Wright-Mahay stockhouse, there's a great dish that you can cook up.
The bullpen looked questionable going into the season, and the Soria injury has proven to be something of a paradigm changer. At the moment, in the "guys we can trust" camp we have Cruz, and... and... perhaps Mahay. Ho-Ram hadn't been bad until today, but hell, he's Ho-Ram.
Sigh.
None of this series went the way it was supposed to. The Indians lost a game started by Lee, the Royals games started by Meche and Greinke. Perhaps the lesson is don't bet on baseball.
See you in St. Louis.