What a lineup, what a team!
I was actually really excited to watch tonight's game. It was a Friday night, Zack was on the mound, and there'd been no Royals baseball since Sunday. Judging by the size of the crowd at the K, I wasn't alone. We all ended up being disappointed, the A's took control early, and the offense just threw out bad at bat after bad at bad.
Ryan pointed out multiple times during the broadcast that Zack was struggling with his control tonight, and in the first few innings especially, that was the case. Greinke walked one in the first inning, and two more in the third, and those walks helped the A's take a 5-1 lead. However, I didn't see a pitcher struggling to find the strikezone as much as I saw a guy giving up random balls in play that the defense behind him couldn't turn into outs. Oakland scored 5 of the softest runs you'll ever see, at least according to this observer. It too Zack forever to get his first strikeout, and he wasn't exactly facing a tough lineup. The hopeful thing is to simply chalk it up to rust and hope for better results next time. There's chatter out there that Zack may be hurt, but I don't have the vantage point to comment on that.
Oh, and the Royals have lost 4 in a row. The Indians are coming.