I feel like I just watched every 2010-11 Mariners game, except the Mariners won.
Postgame reflections:
- The contact play strikes again! My most hated play in baseball took out Jeff Francoeur in the second, as the vaunted leader ran home from third (he had tripled) on a Moose grounder (he didn't pop up? stunner!). I'll once again steal a favored point from Joe Sheehan: this is another example of how being a low-scoring/small-ball team is an elective outcome. The Royals think they can't have big innings, so they never do, because they bunt constantly and run all the time and do things like calling for a contact play in the 2nd inning.
- Hochevar struck out 9 Mariners in 6.2 innings, allowing 4 runs, thanks mostly to Smoak HR. Hochevar's line (which included 3 walks and six hits allowed) roughly translates to allowing 7 runs against a good lineup that doesn't play in a fern gully. The nine strikeouts are cool though. I have noted it in my diary.
- No walks for Collins!
- Unlikely sounding sentences that kind aren't that unlikely: the only two Royals to walk tonight were Francoeur and Moustakas.
- Are we all getting the Giavotella out of our system?