The Royals lose again. Everyone does realize that when myself and others were talking about the National League not being very good, none of actually said "but the Royals are much, much better!"? Good, glad we have that cleared up. Because right now more than ever, as the Royals drop a series to the NL Central cellar-dwellers, this team really isn't very good at baseball.
- Bruce Chen made it through six-and-two-thirds, and would have had a quality start if the bullpen could've picked him up. Kyle Davies, you recall, had about negative three quality starts. I guess I should be encouraged, but it's hard to be when you're talking about a guy whose only good year came when he used voodoo, smoke and mirrors to go from journeyman to good starter in the AL East. Since then, Chen has reverted to journeyman. At least he'll always have 2005? But realistically, this was the Pirates he faced today.
- "Journeyman" may actually have a hidden meaning "better than Kyle Davies, anyway."
- Chen was 1-for-1 with a walk. He was infinitely better than DDJ, Olivo, Teahen, and Hernandez.
- I know Trey doesn't care, but you could make a case for having neither Tony Pena Jr. or Little Luis on this team. And it'd be a pretty good one, too. We certainly don't need two utility guys who can't hit their hat size. Really, couldn't we at least give some of their PAs to someone marginally interesting such as Hulett. Oh right, he's not scrubby enough to be Willie Ballgame. Sorry, Tug.
- Speaking of which, Bloomquist and Billy Butler had two hits each. The latter had two RBI, but he is terrible because he has clearly already peaked.
- Brayan Pena had another hit in his only PA. With Olivo not going to be part of the next Royals competitive team, it's hard to see why BPJ shouldn't get more playing time. He's earned the right to fail, if he's going to fail.
- I have only one thing to say about John Bale's pitching: was Terminator: Salvation any good?
- Everyone congratulate Warden11 for correctly guessing Luis Hernandez's career SLG. It was .285 coming into this game.