The Royals cruised to a relaxing and strangely affirming 9-1 victory this afternoon at the K, dispatching an Orioles team that has been playing somewhat well themselves.
There's no plausible reason why a Getz/Cabrera top of the order should really be catalyzing the offense, but there they were, racking up five hits combined and three runs scored. The Melk-Man even added a garbage time HR off of Creepy Clay Rapada and a walk for good measure. Down at the bottom of the order, Mike Aviles continued his assault on Dayton Moore's heart. There just might be hope for this relationship yet.
I'm always surprised when Chen has one of these games, but with offense in the American League dropping down to early 1990s levels (I recommend listening to the recent Rany & Joe podcast about six straight times on this matter) and Chen never quite being as bad as he can appear, maybe it isn't so stunning. And plus, the Orioles are one of Chen's many former teams, so there's that salty revenge factor as well.
Finally, this is a topic for another day, but the Orioles should always serve as a really scary example of what can happen to a team with hyped young players. They've had some legitimate success with a few guys, but between attrition and bad fill-in moves at the Major League level, they're still in a very tough position and look far from contention. That'll never happen to us... we say.