This was a very difficult game for the Royals to lose, but they found a way. You might not be the lead highlight on Sportscenter just for blowing a 6-2 lead in the 7th inning, but it's still a massive collapse. Team's up by four runs with nine outs to go have about a 96% chance of holding on.
- The bullpen is completely in shambles. Shambles. We've come a long way to get back to where we started from, but here we are. Basically, it's 2005 out there. OK, Soria, and the 2005 Royals. Dayton Moore's regime rose and fell on the backs of relievers. He built some good 'pens -- by our pathetic standards -- in '07 and parts of '08, and the whole thing peaked with the Ram-Ram & Jack Soria combination. Now, Ramirez and Nunez are gone, and we're left with more Dayton guys like Mahay, Farnsworth, Wright, etc. who can't get the job done. It's an expensive, hand-picked collection of ineffective guys.
- The amazing thing is, Jamey Wright has sucked since May, but he had like a good 10 innings to start the year, so now Trey would stake his life on a Wright inning. Wright's coup de grace was walking Reggie Willits, who heading into the game had a .233/.226/.233 line. He's Willie Bloomquist three weeks into a hunger strike.
- I want to give Trey some credit for using Soria in the 8th. But really, was it any different than his patented down 10-2 appearances? The Royals had no one left essentially. The game was already tied, and the bases were loaded. I guess he could have brought in Cruz. So bravo.
- I am not a Hillman fan, but Hillman is only a symptom of the problem. Remember that. Hillman's faults are that he's stubborn, incredibly conservative and bad it would seem on injury-issues and evaluating talent. He fits right in, and if Moore was to hire him, he'd likely try to find someone who was even more Hillman than Hillman.
- Has anyone noticed that the Angels don't even play Angel-ball anymore. They have the third highest OBP in the AL, just behind the Yankees and Rays. Thank God we modelled our franchise after some vague idea of what they were doing six years ago.
- For the first time this season, I feel like 100 losses is in play. As I wrote in the game thread, maybe it is better that way. A superficial drive for 79 wins does no one any good.
- Apparently the post-game press conference was a little testy. It could be a fun day tomorrow.